


Of Lions And Snakes - A Drarry SlowBurn Fanfiction

by poisoninyourveins



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Draco Malfoy - Freeform, Drarry, Enemies to Lovers, Harry Potter - Freeform, M/M, Malfoy, Minerva McGonagall - Freeform, Multi, Severus Snape - Freeform, Slow Burn, hermione granger - Freeform, ron weasley - Freeform, slowburn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-07
Updated: 2021-03-01
Packaged: 2021-03-09 18:41:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Underage
Chapters: 7
Words: 32,562
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27940931
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/poisoninyourveins/pseuds/poisoninyourveins
Summary: In their sixth year at Hogwarts, Draco's decadance has caught the attention of Harry, who tries to gather as much evidence as possible to out him as a Death Eater. An unfortunate event will force them to spend several days of detention together.Can Harry's moral compass allow him to acknowledge the feelings he has for his nemesis?Will Draco's plans alter for the sake of only one person?
Relationships: Draco Malfoy & Harry Potter, Draco Malfoy/Harry Potter
Comments: 21
Kudos: 23





	1. The Potions Incident

**Author's Note:**

> Hey! Before you start reading I'd like to give a DISCLAIMER,
> 
> In order to make the story work, there may be some inaccuracies in comparison to the book(s) or the movie(s). Believe me I am aware and I am trying my best to avoid it. 
> 
> Also this is my first slow burn, so hopefully it won't be too disappointing. I hope you enjoy this chapter. I'll try to update every one to two weeks! 
> 
> (P.S.  
> The first chapter will probably suck, BUT I believe it gets better afterwards lol i'm sorry)

The incidents in Hogwarts kept coming despite the high-security measures that both the Ministry and Dumbledore himself had reinforced around the school. Harry suspected Malfoy since day one. After all, he did hear him boasting to his friends on the train and a few days ago, after Slughorn’s party, he found his way around eavesdropping on Draco’s conversation with Snape. And though he was undeniably obsessed with finding out more about his malicious plan and exposing him, he also started to feel worried about his six-year-nemesis.

Draco looked paler than usual; it appeared he had lost weight and his eyes had circles so dark under them that made a clear contrast with the rest of his paper-white face. Harry had heard from different teachers that he was falling behind in his classwork, he noticed he consistently avoided Quidditch and seemed to be fighting with Crabbe and Goyle more than usual.

None of these were standard behaviour for Malfoy. Whatever it was he was trying to do, it was surely eating him from the inside, and the hatred that slow-boiled in Harry for so many years, started getting replaced by a feeling resembling pity.

In a few hours, the students would have to get up and ready for breakfast, yet Harry was laying on his bed with his eyes wide open, seemingly unable to find a way to rest. He looked around the room and made sure everyone was sleeping, though the snoring was a clear giveaway. He quietly climbed off his bed and opened his terribly disheveled trunk -all thanks to his daily habit of digging up the Marauder’s Map more than enough times, always looking and waiting for a specific name to appear.

‘I solemnly swear that I’m up to no good.’ Harry whispered as he crouched next to his bed. The map started revealing its lines as if they were drawing themselves on it, right in front of Harry’s eyes, until the whole school was complete. His look immediately shifted to the Slytherin Common Room, which appeared empty. Then he looked at the Boys’ Dormitories to find Malfoy’s name -disappointingly- in his room along with Crabbe, Goyle, Nott, and Zabini. Nothing out of the ordinary seemed to be happening once again. But seconds before he was ready to close the map again, his eyes detected movement.

Malfoy’s name moved towards the door and young Potter regained his interest. A malevolent smile formed on his lips as he waited for Malfoy to finally act out and get himself caught, a smile that quickly disappeared when Draco, instead of leaving his room, walked away from the door and to the back of his room. This kept on for a while; Harry just stood above the map and watched the letters of Malfoy’s name move back and forth on the tinted paper. It appeared that the Slytherin couldn’t sleep either.

Despite Harry’s interest in Draco's sudden energy boost that had him walking around his room at half-past four in the morning, he could feel his eyelids getting heavy for the first time that night and decided to grasp his chance while he still could.

‘Mischief managed’ he tapped the map with his wand; the lines started hiding the same way they appeared, then he carefully folded the blank paper and hid it back into his trunk under the messily thrown clothes. He dragged himself on his bed and soon drifted away to sleep.

He woke up the next morning because of Ron’s yells coming from across the room. He was raging over his newly acquired pink set of hair, which he was sure was given to him while he was sleeping by either Dean or Seamus who were both missing from the room at the time.

‘If I find them, I swear,’ Ron turned to Harry with a red face ‘Do you have any idea how to fix this?’

Harry struggled not to laugh as bubblegum pink strands framed Ron’s face and he nodded a no.

‘But you know who could help you with that? Hermi-’

‘Oh sod off Harry,’ Ron immediately cut him off and looked back at the mirror, hoping for it to only be an illusion ‘I don’t want her seeing me like that. I look ridiculous!’

‘And since when do you care?’ Harry yawned loudly as he got off his bed and started getting dressed. He could see from the reflection of the mirror Ron’s cheeks blushing pink and his eyes lowering, but the now -pink-haired- boy pretended not to have heard him. Harry was glad that his friends had made up again, but in the mere thought that their feelings for each other could be anything more than platonic, he felt his hair rising.

They were soon out of their room and taking their shortcut to the Dining Room to have breakfast. Ron made sure every five seconds that the knitted cap he had put on (a thoughtful gift from his mother ages ago), was covering his whole head effectively, while Harry felt a little sick to his stomach right before they walked in.

Lately, he felt anxious in the slightest implication that there was a chance he and Malfoy would be in the same space, even though a lot of the time, he purposely put himself in such situations. His palms felt sweaty as he clutched them into fists; as they were walking towards their table, where Hermione had saved a couple of seats for them, Harry tried to scan the room in hopes he would spot the familiar white hair amongst the mass of green and silver robes, but his attempt was unfruitful.

When he got close enough to their table he smiled at Hermione and she returned the favour, but before Ron could do the same, he suddenly started running, for he had spotted his two roommates seated only a few spots farther. Professor McGonagall stood from her seat as she noticed the three Gryffindors running around the elongated table in circles, causing commotion that early in the morning.

‘Weasly, please!’ she yelled and left her chair.

Professor Snape and most of Slytherin, could not hide their entertainment from their faces as they watched Gryffindor making a fool of themselves. Harry sat down next to a very befuddled Hermione, but his mind wasn’t at Ron who was now dragged by Professor McGonagall along with Seamus and Dean. It was at the boy who kept missing several meals for the past few weeks instead.

‘What’s wrong with them?’ asked Hermione, forcing Harry out of his thoughts

‘They turned his hair pink,’ he muttered flatly ‘But don’t tell him I told you, or he’s gonna start chasing me.’ Hermione left out a disapproving sigh and continued to keep her eyes on Professor McGonagall lecturing the boys at the other side of the room  
‘Is Malfoy missing breakfast again?’ asked Harry.

‘It seems so. But I can’t say I’m mad about it.’ Harry stared at her persistently, until she gave in and explained herself ‘He would ridicule the whole chasing situation!’ she added in an attempt to escape Potter’s glare.

‘I believe his friends won’t leave him without a detailed transmission.’ he said and locked eyes with Zabini, who seemed to be the only one to notice the fact that Harry’s gaze was shifting to their table every few seconds. After getting caught by Blaise, he turned to look at the scoreboard, where he noticed that Gryffindor was down by ten points, probably because of his friend’s mess.

Ron was finally allowed to sit down and have his breakfast, but Harry noticed that he was still wearing the beanie. ‘They wouldn’t tell me the spell’ he murmured annoyed in the middle of stuffing his mouth with sausages. Hermione, Harry noticed, was looking pretty intently at Ron’s covered head for a bit without speaking a single word.

‘Why are you even wearing that?’ she suddenly snapped out of it and grabbed Ron’s knitted cap.

‘No don’t-’ he panicked and tried to stop her, but it was proven he wasn’t quick enough. So, with his face buried in his palms, he awaited for the intense laughter, finger-pointing, and jokes to begin at any second from the rest of the students. To his surprise, everyone appeared to be indifferent. He slowly uncovered his face and cowardly looked around; no one was paying him any attention.

‘Well? What is it?’ Hermione persisted. Ron grabbed a spoon and took a quick glance at his reflection; his hair had returned to ginger.

‘I was, er, trying a new style.’ he replied confounded and looked at Harry, who shrugged in nescience.

‘It wasn’t really working for you if you want my opinion.’ she replied and noticed Harry smiling at her, discretely letting her know he had worked out her trick. She had gotten so good at silent spell-casting, that it could be easily considered a threat.

Their first period of the day was free so it’s appropriate for one to assume that Ron and Harry sat lazy in the Common Room waiting for Hermione, who on the other hand had started her day with Ancient Runes, and therefore had the energy of a highly caffeinated toddler, as usual.

For their next period, the three of them had to attend DADA with Snape, however a surprise was waiting for them as they had reached the classroom’s door. The door was locked and a handwritten note, in Snape’s handwriting read:

‘ ** _Due to unexpected matters,_**  
**_the classes of the first and second period have been_**  
**_cancelled. You will be notified shortly about the_**  
**_substitution of the missed lessons._**  
**_Professor Snape_** ’

Despite the general sense of relief amongst the students, Harry was enraged. Snape’s tardiness robbed him from yet another chance of keeping an eye on Draco’s mischief. He even started feeling envious of Hermione’s overfilled schedule, for the sole reason that it gave her more hours with Malfoy. Harry was certain that spending more time with him would be the perfect way to find out everything he needed to bring him down. Had he known earlier of Malfoy’s intentions of acting out, he would’ve made sure to apply for more classes, even though he’d probably be denied in most of them and fail the rest.

Luckily for Harry, their next class was Potions. And he was prepared, once again, with his favourite Advanced Potion Making book, to make sure that when he did see Malfoy, he’d get on his nerves. It was a hobby he very much enjoyed, given that he rarely had that advantage against him when it came to classes. But as much happiness that brought to Harry, the same, if not more, amount of rage caused to both Draco and Hermione.

For some reason, Malfoy’s constant absence and indifference made Harry’s blood boil. For the past few years, it was he who chased after Harry, and now that Harry could use that, Malfoy decided to change his habits. How was he supposed to uncover the truth when Draco seemed to be running away from him? Potter’s anger acted as an energy fuel, a painful realisation for his friends.

He looked at Ron, lazily resting his head on his hand, ready to fall asleep on the sofa next to the fireplace, while Hermione was in the library doing her studying for Ancient Runes, and he made a decision on the spot. He violently woke his friend up by pulling on the arm that Ron used as a headrest and ordering him hastily to get on his feet. Only after they were already on their way did Harry reveal to Ron that they were in fact going to class ten minutes prior to the lesson, his sole reason being ‘to get a headstart’.

He faked deafness towards Ron’s whining all the way to the Dungeons and knocked on the door full of excitement. Slughorn’s smile drew so big on his face, as soon as he saw Harry, that it almost altered his face shape.

‘Harry, m’boy,’ said Slughorn, completely ignoring Ron’s presence ‘Come in!’ he motioned and the two boys walked in ‘You’re early today. Not that I’m complaining, of course.’ he wobbled back to his desk and kept on organising his tools.

‘I know sir, but I had a strange yearning for learning today, since the moment I opened my eyes today.’ Harry said with a smile, causing Ron’s dumbfounded look towards him. Understandable, given that Harry appeared almost sedated from the minute he woke up to about five minutes ago.

‘Excellent Harry! Just like Lily.’ said Slughorn proudly. Soon enough, Hermione arrived, looking just as puzzled as Ron was before, to see them sitting at their desk before her. ‘Looks like they beat you today, Granger’

The class started filling up as the minutes went by and despite Zabini’s and Nott’s arrival, Malfoy hadn’t shown; a fact that made Harry’s stomach drop in disappointment the longer his absence continued. Zabini, once again, took notice of Harry's persistent looks towards their table but said nothing. He just gave him a sinister look, that made Potter’s face redden in embarrassment and consequently, infuriated him more. Draco’s tardiness made Harry look obsessed and since Blaise saw it, he would undoubtedly tell his friend. Slughorn’s question forced Zabini to turn his view to him.

‘Is Mr. Malfoy coming? Today’s lesson is very important and I need all the time I can have.’ Harry dreaded Zabini’s answer, but it would give him an answer and hence stop his stress induced by his uncertainty.

‘He is, professor. He probably was delayed due to prefect duty’ he replied with a fake but convincing smile

‘I’m a prefect,’ Hermione’s voice sounded loud, causing his smile to drop ‘But I’m never late for my classes.’

‘I don’t remember asking you.’ he held himself back from calling her the name he wanted, only because Slughorn was there and he didn’t wish for Slytherin to lose any points.

‘No need to get feisty, kids. Sometimes incidents do occur-’ a hurried knocking on the door interrupted him, ‘Do come in!’ Draco walked in, with his eyes lowered, another newly acquired habit of his.

‘I’m sorry, sir. Prefect charge.’ he murmured and looked up at him. Harry shot him a nasty look, but he didn’t notice. Blaise, on the other hand, did. Another disappointment that angered Harry to the point that he could barely hide it.

‘I can and will let it go this time, Mr. Malfoy. But I am asking you not to repeat it, for I won’t be as tolerant.’ Slughorn remarked rigidly and though Malfoy frowned, he complied.

‘Right, then. Today we’ll be making a potion that I’m confident all of you have heard of. Veritaserum, it is called,’ he said and suddenly the whole class seemed exponentially more intrigued at once ‘That should be page fifty-two on your books,’ Harry looked at Malfoy as he lazily flipped the pages. Even the way he was going through his book annoyed him. ‘Now, who can tell me-’ Hermione had already raised her hand, earning an eye roll from Zabini and Malfoy’s annoyed expression. ‘Ah, Granger, quicker than a fox. Go on.’

‘Veritaserum is a clear and odourless potion, also referred to as the truth serum; the drinker is forced to answer any question truthfully, though it does not work on everyone, since there are methods to resist. Its use is also strictly limited by the Ministry.’ she answered without needing a second to think

‘It can also be unreliable since the answers the drinker gives are heavily affected by what they consider to be true.’ Blaise gave Hermione an undermining look and Malfoy let out a chuckle, making Harry, Hermione, and Ron angry.

‘Excellent, both of you! Ten points for each of your houses.’ Slughorn seemed ignorant of the tension around him.

The students were soon enough instructed to concoct the serum themselves. They were given half an hour to prepare it, but Harry didn’t share the stress of everyone else in the class, of course. The Half Blood Prince had once again solved all of his problems. As the rest of the class struggled to make do, he was taking his time and moved serenely.

Hermione’s hair was frizzier than usual and her nervousness showed on her fidgeting legs whenever she had to stand still. Ron looked irritated by the fact that he struggled to get anything right and Malfoy- well, Malfoy seemed to finally pay attention to Harry, who was occasionally giving him arrogant looks from the other side of the class. It was Malfoy’s turn to get angry.  
He was sweating and got his clothes dirty, in his attempts to follow the instructions on the book, whereas Harry was moving with such confidence that implied he had made that potion numerous times. He could see that Potter was going to be the only one to make it correctly and on time once again, but he wasn’t ready to give up yet.

The thirty minutes that were given to them didn’t feel nearly enough for anyone in the class; except for Harry, unsurprisingly. Slughorn gave them the five-minute mark and the sound of clanking tools, restless murmurs, and bubbling intensified significantly. A strand of Hermione’s hair almost caught on fire at some point when she leaned next to her cauldron, but she smelled the burned hair fast enough to prevent such an accident from happening. Draco was constantly switching his eyes from his evidently failed potion to Harry, then from Harry to his potion, and so on. Slughorn asked them to move away from their desks and everyone accepted their defeat. As the professor moved towards the students, he made a swift arm movement while holding his wand, and every fire under every cauldron was taken out simultaneously.

Harry, who had finished a few minutes early, smiled smugly as he looked at everyone’s tired and frustrated faces; especially Malfoy’s who was standing frowning his eyebrows and with his arms crossed around his chest, giving Potter an indignant look. Harry finally felt accomplished and not because of his perfectly executed elixir.

‘Alright, alright. Let’s have a look,’ said Slughorn and started walking towards the students’ desks. ‘Mr. Zabini,’ he leaned over Blaise’s cauldron and looked pleased ‘You did well, for your first try on such a difficult potion, but there is space for improvement. Much, much space, I should say,’ Hermione didn’t have the energy to smile at Slughorn's remark on Zabini’s failed attempt, ‘Mr. Malfoy, you did better, but again, some development should be expected in the near future.’ Slughorn said less enthusiastically. Eventually, he had gone over every House except Gryffindor, which he consciously saved for last.  
‘Roland, did you even try m’boy?’ he asked Ron, who didn’t even bother correcting him. ‘Miss Granger,’ he looked at her violet liquid in the cauldron ‘You’re at the same point as Mr. Malfoy; maybe a step ahead, I believe.’ she found some strength to smile at that comment and didn’t care to notice Draco’s frown getting worse than before.  
‘And finally, Mr. Potter,’ it was heavily implied by his tone, he had prepared himself for great results and -truth be told- he was not disappointed ‘Unbelievable,’ he whispered, but the whole class heard it, ‘Every time you do this, yet every time I’m caught by surprise.’ the bland, clear potion seemed to be glimmering at Harry ‘This was a very- very difficult potion to prepare, Harry. And you did an exceptional job. Textbook stuff I’m telling you. A born potioneer!’ Slughorn’s compliments on Harry annoyed every other student and Hermione was obviously very irritated that he took credit he did not deserve. But she was not the one to speak that day.

‘This must be a joke!’ Malfoy’s voice echoed from the other side of the class. Now everyone was looking at him. ‘How are you doing this? It cannot possibly be your work, Potter.’

‘You’ll get it next time, Mr, Malfoy, you don’t have-’ Slughorn tried to interfere but was ignored by both of them.

‘Five years now you couldn’t even stir the correct way. And now you want me to believe that you became Potion’s master all of a sudden? You must be hiding something.’ his voice raised and the veins on his neck started to protrude. Harry leaned back and smiled conceitedly once more.

‘I’m sorry that Snape isn’t around to pat your back, Malfoy, but it is not my problem that your incapability is finally showing.’ Harry replied with a smirk as he saw Draco’s face get more offended with every word he spoke.

‘Mr. Potter!’ Slughorn said shocked, but he was ignored once more.  
‘Or maybe, that’s not the problem in this case.’ Harry continued unbothered, ‘Maybe you’re just mad that I finally put your Death Eater of a father in Azkaban and you’re-’

‘Harry!’ yelled Slughorn who appeared to be having a heart attack.

Draco pushed his table to the ground, the sound of breaking glass prominent as he pulled out his wand, and started charging at Harry, who only then realised he had stepped over a line. Harry quickly reached for his wand from the table, but he soon figured out they wouldn’t be needing them after all when within seconds, Harry felt a sharp pain on his face, causing his eyes to water and feared he had broken his nose for the second time in a year. Somehow, his glasses managed to stay on, though a little crooked.

His sudden dizziness and the force of Draco’s hit almost sent him to the floor, but he found support on the semi-stable desk behind him. Ron thought about going to Harry’s aid but as it turned out, one blink of an eye later, he didn’t need any.

Harry pushed Malfoy back, making him slip on the dropped liquid and hit the side of the desk during his fall, resulting in a slit on his lower lip. He only had time to sit up before he saw Harry drawing his wand, not looking hesitant to use it; his wand was dropped when he fell and he could not spot it at that moment.

‘You’re not going to do anything, Potter,’ Draco laughed between his words and ignored the broken glass that pierced the skin of his palm as he pushed himself up. Harry tightened his grip around his wand and took a step back. Everyone, including the professor, stood in awe around them, unable to process what was happening in front of their eyes ‘You wouldn’t dare. Not in front of Mr. Slughorn!’ the last couple of words had a mocking filter ‘Pathetic excuse of a wizard.’ he murmured, but Harry heard and that was enough to trigger his fight response.

He threw his wand to the floor and punched Draco in the throat, a move so quick and sudden, that Malfoy didn’t have a chance of stopping. The blonde Slytherin made terrifying noises as he struggled to reacquire his breath, with his body curved towards the floor.

‘That’s enough! From the both of you!’ Slughorn finally got himself involved and yelled for the first time that semester. ‘Fifty points from both of your Houses! Granger, go fetch Professor Snape and Professor McGonagall, tell them it’s urgent. Everyone else, but the two of you, dismissed.’  
The class emptied in seconds. Harry caught a glimpse of Ron’s skeptical look before he was out, but didn’t read into it. Draco rubbed his throat as his breathing returned to normal; his left hand appeared to be dripping blood, so he hid it behind his right arm, but Harry managed to see it. Slughorn stepped between them to prevent another incident.  
‘I want you on that side and you on that side,’ he pointed to the two desks that faced each other but had enough distance between them to be considered a safe bet. They both obliged and stood quietly as Slughorn walked around the classroom impatiently while muttering under his breath unintelligible words.  
‘What’s gotten into you?’ he stood in the middle of them and started yelling again, ‘Acting like children at such an age! I had higher expectations, especially from you, Potter!’

‘That’s certainly new.’ Draco said sarcastically, making his teacher instantly turn around and face him.

‘I wouldn’t be saying such things if I were in your shoes Mr. Malfoy!’ Harry chuckled and Slughorn turned back at him, his face a bright red color, as if he had been holding his breath, ‘Same goes to you, Mr. Potter!’ he yelled louder at Harry, who then saw Draco grinning in delight. His grin was erased seconds after forming, the moment they heard the door knock.  
‘Come on in.’ sighed Slughorn and in walked McGonagall, Snape, and Hermione behind them. Professor McGonagall audibly gasped and covered her mouth immediately upon seeing the state of affairs, whilst professor Snape raised his eyebrows as he skimmed over the mess and then glared at both of the boys.  
‘Ms. Granger if you’d be so kind as to stay, it would be highly appreciated. I think you’d make an unbiased witness if you agree as well.” Slughorn turned to his coworkers who nodded positively, still in a state of almost paralytic astonishment.

Draco wasn’t happy with the witness of choice but had he spoken at that moment, he would have dug his grave deeper. Hermione shut the door behind her and walked up next to Professor McGonagall.

‘Mr. Potter. Mr. Malfoy,’ Snape’s voice sounded deep and grim, ‘I believe there is some explaining in order.’ Neither of the boys spoke; they just looked snobbishly back at the intimidating man with the long black hair that stood in front of them, quietly judging them. He turned to McGonagall, who was equally lost.

‘Mr. Potter,’ said McGonagall, struggling to keep her voice stable, ‘Why don’t you start with what initiated the fight?’ Harry looked at Malfoy who was already glowering back at him.

‘Malfoy offended me.’ muttered Harry stiffly

‘You speak about offending people?’ Draco stood up straighter as if he was getting ready to jump at Harry again, but was quickly shut down just by a look from Professor Snape.

‘You’ll get your turn, Draco,’ McGonagall told him and turned back to Harry ‘What did he say that offended you exactly?’

‘That I couldn’t have gotten that good at Potions, considering my performance in the previous years.’ said Harry, and his eye caught a glimpse of a very annoyed Hermione looking at him; so he looked away.

‘Truth be told Mr. Potter, it had struck me as peculiar too. Your so sudden… advancement’ Snape replied, visibly doubting Harry’s skills ‘You were never, really, top of my class’

‘Maybe the teacher makes a difference, then.’ Harry replied crudely

‘Harry!’ Slughorn gasped for the third time within an hour, not yet used at such behaviour from his favourite student. Snape looked at the boy disdainfully.

‘I don’t think you are in any position to be making such remarks right now Mr. Potter!’ McGonagall scowled at him and turned to the blonde boy, who was side-eyeing Potter ‘Was that all that happened? Mr. Malfoy?’

‘Of course not,’ he scoffed ‘It just seems that Potter developed a habit of running his mouth.’

‘Could you be more specific?’ McGonagall insisted, but he just looked at her, then at Snape, and remained silent as he bitterly lowered his gaze, ‘Maybe you could help us, Hermione.’ she turned to the girl standing on her right, who was nervously waiting for that question.

Though she despised Draco’s mere existence, Harry had grown to be very annoying lately; let alone he earned credit in a way she considered unethical. She wasn’t planning on informing them about Harry’s beloved Half Blood Prince, but she intended to speak the truth about what had happened during the lesson.

‘Well, professor, Harry did in fact tell the truth before, but he also isn’t innocent on the act of offenses,’ she looked at her friend, who was begging her with his eyes not to continue; she ignored him and continued ‘Harry accused Draco of being undeservingly favourited by a teacher,’ Snape glared down at Harry once again, instantly understanding his involvement ‘And he also brought in the conversation the imprisonment of Malfoy’s father. But I don’t really want to quote him on that if that’s okay. That’s what ended up initiating the fight, I believe.’

If looks could kill, Hermione would have been violently murdered by Harry himself, who was now hesitantly looking at the terrifying look on McGonagall’s face. Snape had his arms crossed around his chest and the disapproving frown on his face made the use of any words unnecessary. Slughorn, his chubby face all sweaty and red still, started feeling nervous about the consequences all this would have on Harry.

‘Well, Malfoy was the cause of all this,’ Harry nodded his head to the scattered parts on the floor ‘And he was the one to attack me!’ he tried to defend himself, stupidly enough. Draco side-eyed him again but kept his quiet.

‘I think that both of the boys are under a lot of stress,’ Slughorn chimed in with an audible doubt in his voice ‘I am willing to forget all about the incident if they promise-’

‘No, no professor Slughorn,’ Snape’s voice stopped his talking ‘I believe some sort of punishment is in order, for both of them. I hope professor McGonagall shares the same opinion.’

‘Certainly’ McGonagall replied ‘And I think that you should start by cleaning up this mess.’ she told the boys, who didn’t dare to object, then leaned towards Slughorn ‘I would take them to Dumbledore, but he, unfortunately, is absent again. And personally, I do not see this as a reason to expel them. They only have a year left, it would be a shame’

‘Oh, agreed, agreed,’ Slughorn jumped ‘I was just taken aback that’s all. They’re teenagers, after all, it’s only expected.’ he whispered back to McGonagall, faking reassurance.

‘I’ll make sure that you’ll be compensated for everything that was destroyed as soon as possible.’

‘Thank you, thank you.’ Slughorn rested his hands on his protruding stomach. His color had returned to normal and most of the sweat on his face had disappeared.

‘Well, go on then. They won’t pick themselves up.’ McGonagall gestured to the mess ‘You’ll be informed of your detention status within twenty-four -, Mr. Malfoy, what happened to your hand?’ she asked, her voice letting out a hint of fear as she noticed the boy’s blood-covered fingers. He had gotten carried away and accidentally put his injured hand in plain sight. As he looked at it, Draco realised that it had gotten significantly worse, yet refused to let his panic show.

‘Nothing to worry about, professor.’ he replied stiffly and hid his arm behind his back.

‘You need to pay a visit to Madam Pomfrey immediately!’ McGonagall ordered. ‘You may need stitches for that lip as well’

‘I’ll show him there’ Snape grabbed Malfoy’s right, uninjured arm and forcefully pulled him out of the class.

‘Mr. Potter you’ll have to take care of this on your own, I’m afraid. And as for what you said to Mr. Malfoy, I think you can predict my immense disappointment in you’

‘Thank you Professor McGonagall, but I’d hate to waste any more of your valuable time. I’ll stay to monitor him from now on,’ said Slughorn, to Harry’s great annoyance ‘Oh and if you’d be so kind as to take Mr. Malfoy’s wand back to him, I’d be grateful.’ he said and walked back to his desk where he’d kept the boys’ fallen wands to bring it to her.

Harry looked at Hermione as she walked out, and though she glanced back at him empathetically, she did not offer to help him. He accepted his fate and envied the Slytherin that managed to get out of it, even if it was due to his injury.

Slughorn’s talking acted as white noise to Harry’s ears, helping him create a better visual of his upcoming detentions with Draco. It was an obligation that would aid his attempts of figuring out and exposing the infamous plan that Malfoy had to complete and occupied his mind for so long, but it was also a painful reminder that he’d actually have to be in the same room with him without any form of confrontation being tolerated, for an eminent amount of hours, should his assumptions be correct.


	2. Detained

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AO3's format decided to mess up the line spacing so I apologise for that, in case you find it annoying. I tried to fix that but I couldn't figure it out :(

After McGonagall and Hermione left Harry and Slughorn alone, therefore forcing Harry to sit through what felt like an hour-long blubbering from Professor Slughorn as he was looking at the mess on the floor that ‘ _Draco created, and so Draco should clean it_ ’.  
  
A slight throbbing on his nose was a factor that forced him to remember the punch he had received earlier and consequently reignite his anger every time it started to burn down. He touched the area around his nose and could feel it had swollen up, probably even bruised.  
  
‘I think you should go by the Hospital Wing as well, Harry,’ Slughorn said concerningly, midst his talking, ‘It’s gotten worse, I reckon.’  
‘I’m supposed to clean up-’  
  
‘Don’t worry ‘bout that. Go on now before it gets worse’ Slughorn pointed his finger to the door and Harry, after an affirming nod, rushed out of the class.   
  
Harry wasn’t a fan of his Professor’s tendencies for unrelenting chatter, but he surely appreciated his more-than-humane treatment towards him. He was no Lupin, but thankfully he wasn’t even relatively resembling Snape.   
  
Most of the halls were empty, a cue that the next period had already begun. Random students that walked by Harry, especially the younger ones, looked horrified at the sight of Harry’s face and eventually started scaring Harry himself, who had yet to see the condition of his trauma.  
  
As he reached the closed doors of the Hospital, he stopped and leaned on one of them to listen if anyone else was inside, but he heard nothing. Seconds after he knocked, the hurried footsteps of Madam Pomfrey were echoing loudly enough for Harry to hear. He stepped a couple of steps back and the doors swung open.   
  
‘Oh, dear!’ Madam Pomfrey exclaimed at her first view of Harry’s face. She motioned Harry to walk in, so he did.  
  
‘I, er, fell and hit my nose on my way to-’   
  
‘The Kneazle’s out of the bag, Potter,’ a familiar voice sounded from a few beds in. Malfoy. ‘Professor Snape made sure to thoroughly inform her of your accident during Potions.’  
  
Harry looked at Draco’s sneering face as he was waiting on a bed, with his left palm open and waiting for Madam Pomfrey to get back. What was he talking about?

  
‘I’d expected you’d show up Mr. Potter. In fact, I started getting worried,’ Madam Pomfrey sat him down on a bed right next to Malfoy’s; an unfortunate coincidence ‘You were lucky that no one else got hurt.’ she walked back and forth gathering her supplies as she spoke, ‘When Professor Snape told me what had happened, I expected to see a whole classroom marching in. I’m glad to stand corrected.’ 

  
‘And what exactly did he tell you to have happened?’ Harry asked visibly confused 

  
‘The hit made him forget, bless him,’ Malfoy said with a smile full of menace, ‘You mixed a couple of wrong ingredients during the lesson and accidentally sent your cauldron flying, don’t you remember?’ Harry looked at him and debated whether or not he deserved to be punched again, but decided against it; he stayed silent, ‘Don’t worry Potter, I’m sure you’ll get your memory back soon enough’. 

  
‘Well I’m glad to see that no one here is holding any grudges,’ Madam Pomfrey smiled ignorantly at Draco and walked up next to him, ‘Mr. Potter, why don’t you lie down until I’m done with Mr. Malfoy? It will only take a few minutes, don’t worry.’ she told him and Harry while shooting a threatening look at the boy sitting on the bed on his right; then he hesitantly lied down and waited. 

  
Every time Malfoy quietly grunted or whimpered in pain as Madam Pomfrey removed the broken glass particles from his hand, a smile formed on Harry’s face, who didn’t bother hiding his entertainment at Malfoy’s pain.

  
Madam Pomfrey closed up Draco’s wounds with a few movements of her wand, she covered it with a few bandages and then ran to her office to bring him an Excuse Note for the class he missed while being there. The boy waited until she had left them alone and walked next to Harry. His horrid underbacks were illuminated from the harsh white light as he stood above Harry’s bed and looked at his face. 

  
‘That colour looks so pretty on you, Potter. You should get it on both sides.’ he mocked the dark blue and red tint that covered the higher left part of Harry’s face. 

  
‘I like you so much better when your mouth is shut. Why don’t you try that for a while?’ The boys were both frowning at each other, but they had no time to retaliate any longer, because of Madam Pomfrey’s arrival.

  
‘There you go, my sweet!’ she gave Malfoy a piece of inflexible blue paper and he left without saying a word. Madam Pomfrey then examined Harry in a variety of ways, to make sure he didn’t have a concussion as she originally suspected. She let him go with a few warnings and precautions to keep in his mind after she’d helped the swelling go down significantly. 

  
Harry thanked her and walked out of the Hospital Wing right as the break began. He kept his head low and navigated through the hallways until he reached the Gryffindor Common Room where he found Ron and Hermione sitting on the couch under the window. He walked up to them silently, making Hermione jump when she noticed him. 

  
‘Oh, that’s bad.’ Ron commented on the condition of his face.

  
‘What even was that Harry?’ asked Hermione, her pitch higher than usual, ‘You acted completely out of line!’   
  
‘Hello to you too,’ he said sarcastically and sat between them, but he didn't receive an answer; they just kept looking at him, waiting for an explanation, ‘I’m just fed up with his crap, that’s all.’ 

  
‘For the past year you’ve been obsessing over his every move and now you attack him like that, I can’t make any sense of it!’ she insisted 

  
‘He attacked me!’ Harry raised his voice ‘Thanks for the help by the way,’ he turned to Ron 

  
‘Well, sorry that I didn’t want to get involved in your raging episode, I suppose.’ his friend replied as he struggled to make sense of the whole situation as well. Harry sighed and sunk deeper into the couch. 

  
‘Did you go to Madam Pomfrey?’ Hermione asked attempting to change the subject

  
‘Just left. As it turns out that Malfoy and Snape formulated their own line of events.’

  
‘What do you mean?’ asked Ron, 

  
‘They told her that I mixed the wrong stuff or something, and that caused the whole mess.’

  
‘It’s probably for the best that people hear that story.’ said Hermione as she scanned the room with her eyes, making sure everyone was acting the way they were supposed to.

  
‘Why would I want everyone believing I am so bad at Potions that I could cause an explosion?’

  
‘Do you prefer them knowing you got in a fistfight with Malfoy over nothing?’ her pitch rose again,

  
‘It will definitely get around,’ Ron chimed in, ‘Too many people saw. You can’t keep them all silent.’ 

  
‘Now that I think about it,’ muttered Hermione with a finger on her chin, ‘Malfoy hasn’t attended a prefect meeting in quite a while.’

  
‘So?’ Ron asked, but Harry instantly understood where Hermione was going with it.  
  


‘So, when he told Professor Slughorn he was late due to prefect duties, he _must_ have been lying.’ Harry’s eyes lit up as Hermione finished her sentence. It seemed that they had finally started seeing what he was seeing all this time. Maybe they’d, finally, start sharing his concern.  
  


‘There can be a million reasons behind it,’ Ron instantly disappointed Harry ‘For all we know, he could have been snogging Parkinson.’  
  


‘Have you ever seen him showing any sort of intimacy towards her?’ Harry asked angrily.  
  


‘He _is_ nicer to her than most.’ Hermione agreed with Ron, causing a dramatic eye roll from Harry.  
  


It was only late afternoon but it had already gotten dark outside. Dinnertime was approaching and Ron’s stomach was a disturbance to the majority of the students in the library. Even Madam Pince was contemplating escorting the boy out at some point. Hermione shot him several nasty looks throughout and every time he whispered back ‘It’s not my fault, is it?’.  
  


Harry couldn’t concentrate on his studying because every few minutes, he’d notice someone staring at his tricoloured face. Fewer times, they’d whisper and point, maybe even giggle.  
  


‘Just ignore them, Harry.’ Ron tried to ease him  
  


‘It’s more probable that they are looking at Ron, with all the noise he’s making.’ Hermione added without picking up her eyes from the book, therefore not seeing Ron’s mocking of her.  
  


‘It’s fine. I’ll just go lie down. I’m getting really tired.’ Harry lied convincingly  
  


‘Should I save you a seat at the table?’ asked Ron. Madam Pince’s hushing sounds were noisier than their talking, but they proved to be effective since they prevented Harry from answering his words. He just nodded a no and waved goodbye at Hermione, whom Ron had to kick under the table to make her notice Harry leaving.  
  


The Boys’ Dormitories were as silent as they were during those sleepless nights Harry was experiencing more often than before. He tried occupying his mind by flipping through his copy of Advanced Potions Making, in hopes that he’d find something scribbled by the Half Blood Prince that could shift his mood. Unfortunately, the persistent stinging on the left side of his face didn’t want to let him focus. He hid the book in his back and then changed into his sleeping clothes just to lay awake on his bed. About half an hour later, after some ruckus had been reinstated in the hallways, the door to Harry’s room creaked open timidly; Ron tried to discreetly get inside only because he wasn’t sure whether Harry was sleeping or not.  
  


‘I’m awake.’ Harry muttered and sat up on his bed to look at his friend’s disgruntled face. ‘What’s up with you?’  
  
‘You were lucky you were not in the Great Hall tonight,’ said Ron and started pulling off his robes, ‘Malfoy and Zabini were acting as they usually did. Arrogant and annoying. They told everyone around them that you destroyed the Potions’ Classroom because you didn’t do it right, and other stupid excuses to hide the fact that Malfoy got beaten up.’  
  
‘I barely did anything to him,’ Harry scoffed angrily  
  
‘Hermione insists that it’s better if people believed that story over the truth. And I insisted that I should punch him in the face’ Ron continued and started changing into his sleeping garments as well  
  
‘Why didn’t anyone say anything?’ asked Harry, slightly frustrated  
  
‘I don’t think anyone from Ravenclaw could hear them, but I doubt they’d say anything even if they did; then, Snape, Slughorn, and McGonagall were absent. It was their words against ours-, well mine, since Hermione, you know.’ Ron fumbled between his words since his brain seemingly couldn’t focus on too many things at once  
  
‘Why were they absent?’ asked Harry now with a picked curiosity.  
  
‘My best bet is they were trying to figure out your detention, but I can’t be sure. Good luck with that, by the way. I don’t think it’s going to be a one-time thing’  
  
‘Me, neither,’ sighed Harry and fell back on to a lying position ‘I have a strong feeling that whatever the consequences are, I’m gonna hate them.’  
  
‘You have Slughorn on your side, I don’t think he’s going to let them do much.’ Ron tried to comfort him  
  
‘McGonagall didn’t seem to be on my side though. That’s two against one.’  
  
‘Yeah, Hermione told me about her reaction.’ Ron shrugged and their conversation on the subject died shortly when Dean and Seamus arrived in the room.  
  
After only a few hours of sleep, Harry pushed through most of his classes with Herbology being the hardest to stay awake for. Thankfully, there were no instances of him running into Malfoy yet. They didn’t have any classes together, and he, unsurprisingly, missed breakfast. As the three friends paced tiredly through the hallways on their way to their Common Room, a tiny first-year girl with long pigtails and a big smile jumped in front of them, stopping them in their tracks.  
  
‘Miss- I mean, Professor McGonagall asked me to give you this!’ she stretched her small hand and gave Harry a folded parchment.  
  
‘Thank you.’ said Harry but the girl was already running in the opposite direction. He didn’t wait to reach the Common Room, he just opened it right then and there.  
  
‘ ** _Mr. Potter, your presence is required  
at 4 in the afternoon today,  
in my office, for a brief update, regarding yesterday’s incident.  
Best Regards,  
Professor McGonagall_** ’  
  
‘At Four? That’s half an hour from now!’ Ron remarked, annoyed ‘ Do you reckon you’ll make it to Lunch?’  
  
‘I hope so, I’m starving,’ muttered Harry and pocketed the parchment after he refolded it carefully.  
  
‘We’ll save you a seat.’ said Hermione comfortingly.  
  
Most of the students were in their Common Rooms, getting ready to leave for lunch, so the majority of the hallways were deserted when Harry had to visit Professor McGonagall’s office. His breath suddenly shortened and his heartbeat started rising ever so slightly. He wasn’t anxious before, but as he approached the office’s door, the thought of McGonagall being disappointed or angry at him, unbuckled his knees. He swallowed hard before mustering the courage to knock on the door, which flung open the moment his knuckles first touched it. Harry stood there a little surprised and looked at his professor, sitting behind her desk with her hands interlocked and her eyes looking at Harry above her glasses. He took a couple of steps forward and the door loudly shut behind him, making him flinch.  
  
‘Please sit down, Mr. Potter,’ McGonagall motioned her head towards the two crimson velvet chairs that stood empty, facing each other, in front of her desk. ‘Yesterday, as you might have noticed, during Dinner time, Professor Slughorn, Professor Snape, and I were absent.’  
  
‘I wasn’t at dinner last night Professor’ Harry muttered  
  
‘I am sure you have been informed about it then’ she looked at the boy who just shifted his gaze to the ground, ‘As I was saying, the three of us were absent because we were discussing what had happened. We all agreed that this behaviour was unusual for you both. This year, as I’ve noticed, you and Mr. Malfoy didn’t really have that many interactions compared to previous years. Despite your suspicions of him a few months back, which I can overlook, we hoped that your rivalry had subsided.’  
  
Harry bit his tongue as to hold himself back from telling her how far from the truth she was. His suspicions hadn’t faded and how could their rivalry subside after everything that had happened? She must’ve known better than that.  
  
‘If what professor Slughorn’s sayings are correct, the outbursts from both sides were a completely new and unpredicted behaviour. I can see that you are both under a lot of stress this year. I’d be concerned if you weren’t. Especially you, Mr. Potter.’ she paused and her eyes looked kinder than before, ‘Nonetheless, what happened can not go unnoticed. You and Mr. Malfoy will serve at least eight days of detention, you wi-’  
  
‘What does ‘‘ _at least_ eight days’’ mean?’ Harry interrupted her  
  
‘What it means, Mr. Potter, is that should we consider that the days of detention we’ve given you haven’t served their purpose, we shall add more.’ her tone sounded weirdly intimidating as if it had already been decided, ‘Apart from that, you two are also not permitted to attend the next school trip to Hogsmeade nor any sports events during that time, I’m afraid.’  
  
‘But I am Team Captain! And- and Malfoy hasn’t participated at all in Quidditch this year!’ Harry stood up out of frustration  
  
‘You’ll have to find a replacement then, Mr. Potter.’ her voice stayed flat ‘You must learn to take responsibility for your actions one way or another’  
  
‘Don’t you think this is too much just for a stupid fight?’ Harry pleaded with his eyes  
  
‘If we needed your help, Mr. Potter, we would have called for your opinion. I didn’t make these decisions on my own, shall I remind you. And I do not believe it is your place to correct our methods!’ McGonagall’s stiffness was expected, yet it surprised Harry more with every word she spoke.  
‘You start this afternoon at eight o’clock with Professor Sprout; no wands. She’ll explain to you exactly what you have to do.’ she paused to think ‘Also, I should inform you, not all of the detentions are going to be the same. Because of that, you’ll be receiving notices about each one either the day before or the day of the detention, providing you with the information needed. If there are no questions, you are free to attend your lunch.’  
  
Harry wasted no time and left as soon as McGonagall had finished her sentence. He darted to the Great Hall and didn’t even bother shutting the door behind him after leaving the office. He spotted his friends and angrily plunked himself between them. At the Slytherin table, he saw Malfoy, who was looking at Harry with the same angry frown on his face. He must’ve heard the news as well.  
  
‘That didn’t take as long as I thought’ said Hermione and raised an eyebrow,  
  
‘I start tonight.’ murmured Harry as he vigorously started putting random food on his plate without thinking much of it.  
  
‘Tonight? It’s Tuesday!’ Ron noted the obvious fact that detentions rarely happened on a weekday.  
  
‘That’s the least of it’ Harry informed them fully of what McGonagall had told him but a few minutes before.  


‘This must’ve been Snape’s work. There is no way McGonagall would force you off the team.’ Ron whined and whined about Quidditch, but Hermione kept a neutral face.  
  
‘It seems a little over the top, but they were three of them. Surely, they had their reasons. I’m more perplexed about the fact that McGonagall didn’t give you a scolding. Do you remember how she looked yesterday?’ Hermione asked Harry ‘I mean, even after we left, she kept muttering all these things under her breath. She was furious’  
  
‘You don’t think my punishment was enough? I should’ve gotten yelled at too?’ asked Harry, obviously annoyed. He paused for a few minutes, then thought out loud, ‘How am I gonna tell the kids from Quidditch?’  
  
‘If you want, I can tell ‘em,’ Ron replied almost instantly.  
  
‘I’ll think about it. I have to figure out a whole new game plan. And we don’t have time for any new tryouts until the next match.’ Harry started spiraling into his thoughts  
  
‘I’d think that you would have bigger things to worry about other than Quidditch. Honestly, what is it about that sport…’ from that point on, he stopped listening to another one of Hermione’s lectures and started playing with his overfilled plate of food.  
  
Even after they’ve gone to the Common Room, Harry spent the next few hours dreading the idea of detention with Malfoy. He kept trying to think of a way to make it less miserable while pointlessly staring at one random page of his DADA book the whole time, but nothing occurred. Finally, the time came where he had to face his fate. He said goodbye to Ron and Hermione and unwillingly dragged himself to Professor Sprout’s class. It was five to eight when he reached his destination and noticed the Profesor humming songs and talking to her plants, but he didn’t want to go in alone and there was no sign of Malfoy yet.  
  
He tapped his foot nervously on the ground so much, he started to fear it would accidentally dig a hole in it. He was fidgety and couldn’t stand still for a whole second. It was eight sharp when he felt a cold breeze of air that made his whole body shudder. He tried to rub his arms to get warmed up, but it didn’t do much.  
  
‘Should’ve worn a jacket, Potter,’ the familiar voice sounded behind him. Malfoy walked to the entrance of the greenhouse, after making sure to bump into Harry on the way. Harry ignored him and walked towards the class as well.  
  
‘Oh, boys you’re here. Wonderful, wonderful!’ her smile accentuated her red chubby cheeks as she spoke ‘Please pick a basket each and follow me.’ The boys glared at each other as they reached for the same one. They were both too egotistical to let go, but fortunately, before anything escalated, Sprout took notice.  
‘Don’t start just yet!’ her voice sounded annoyed already; with a move of her wand a couple of different baskets flew in the air and landed in front of the boys and the basket that they reached for, she kept for herself. She led them to a different Greenhouse than the one they were standing in, a much bigger one, filled with Belladonna flowers.  
‘I need you to pick the berries of the Belladonnas; I’ll let you know when your time is over, but if you happen to finish _earlier,_ ’ she said and looked at the generous amounts of plants waiting for them ‘Which I seriously doubt, just let me know and I’ll find you something else to do!’ Professor Sprout started waddling happily to the other side of the Greenhouse, which was far enough not to hear their murmuring, but close enough to prevent another violent incident.  
  
The dim lighting of the Greenhouse made Draco look even paler than he usually did. He could easily be mistaken for a ghost at this point. Harry walked towards the first of the three tables and started working on one side. Draco walked to the same table and stood on the other side of it with a grin on his face. His expression was putting Harry off but he couldn’t help his curiosity, as the smile didn’t seem to fade off from his face.  
  
‘What?’ asked Harry angrily but Malfoy didn’t reply; his smile still plastered on, he kept struggling to remove the berries from the Belladonna with one hand. Harry almost smashed a couple of berries in his hand out of frustration.  
  
‘Who would’ve thought that the Chosen One would have to endure the consequences of his actions?’ Malfoy sneered without taking his eyes from the plant.  
  
‘Just shut up for once!’ Harry looked over to make sure that Professor Sprout didn’t hear his snarling and then returned his eyes to the flower.  
  
‘Unless you can find a way to make me do that, I don’t think I have to do as you say.’ he kept taunting him, but his expression was now resembling more frustration than anything, as he couldn’t detach the berry from the plant. Harry smiled in delight, but it didn’t last long.  
  
‘Could you help him, Mr. Potter?’ Professor Sprout’s voice sounded from where she stood ‘Mr. Malfoy is injured, it’s not as easy.’  
  
Harry could see Malfoy’s delight beaming through his eyes, but he knew a way to make him change his mind instantly.  
  
‘Malfoy in need of the Chosen One, hm?’ Harry asked him with a smirk as he pulled the berries off the Belladonna. Malfoy grabbed his arm in a tight and painful clutch, ready to hit him at any moment, but then something changed in his mind, and violently pushed Harry’s hand away.  
  
The flowers seemed never-ending as if there were under a spell to multiply every few minutes and it made the time pass insufferably slow. The glares were often and mutual. When Malfoy found himself incapable of removing a berry, he just moved on to the next one quietly, knowing that should he need Harry’s help again, he would end up beating him relentlessly within seconds.  
  
‘Time is up boys. Please bring me your baskets.’ Professor Sprout’s words sounded melodic to their ears.  
  
They ended up walking side by side as they approached her and Harry could feel that something was off. He side-eyed Malfoy, just to find him doing the same. As Harry stretched his basket-holding hand, an obstacle suddenly appeared between his legs, sending him face-first to the ground. The berries went flying from his basket and left it mostly empty. Harry instantly knew when he looked at Malfoy’s grim smile that it was his doing, but Professor Sprout didn’t seem to notice.  
  
‘Better watch your step, Potter.’ said Malfoy and Harry couldn’t comprehend how Professor Sprout could be so ignorant as to not notice that it was his doing.  
  
‘You’ll need to pick those up, dear. It shouldn’t take too long,’ said the Professor and looked at Malfoy’s basket, leaving no time for Harry to respond, ‘Good job, Mr. Malfoy. I’m sorry you couldn’t fit my class in your schedule this year. Your absence is noticeable.’  
  
As he was leaving, Malfoy looked down at the kneeling Potter next to him and shot him another smug look before he purposely stepped on the fallen berries. Harry stared him down while he was walking away as if he was planning to set him on fire with just his look. But when that, disappointingly, seized to happen and the blonde boy was out of sight, he resumed to his task of picking up as many berries weren’t smushed from the ground.  
  
The past two days were not on Harry’s side apparently. Malfoy would create a mess and he’d have to clean it up. Just in the thought of how happy and content Malfoy would be when he walked into the Slytherin’s Common Room to tell his mates about how he ridiculed him once again, was infuriating him, and unintentionally pressed too hard on a few berries, ending up with more useless berries in his possession.  
  
Once he was finally done, he placed his basket next to Professor Sprout, and without waiting for her telling, he stormed out of the Greenhouse. He forgot about his dirty robes completely, until after he had entered the castle where it was too late to care anyway. 


	3. The Quidditch Ditch

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Drinking game: take a shot every time you see the word book. lol.   
> Disclaimer: The Book Bugs are not canon. I invented them for the sake of the story.  
> I hope you enjoy the chapter!

Harry had a hard time coming to terms with the fact that he was ripped away from his role as Quidditch captain. It had gotten even harder after he decided to take the pressure off his shoulders and let Ron break the news to the team. He had made sure to give him detailed instructions about the new formation they should follow, which was only a couple of alterations really. Ginny would replace him as a Seeker and Dean would be playing Chaser. Even though Ron and Ginny assured him multiple times that no one in the team was blaming him for what happened, he avoided all of the other members as much as he could, because he was doubting whether his friends were just being nice or truthful.  
  
The fluidity and uncertainty about their Detentions made Harry a lot more upset than he’d usually be. He basically could not plan for anything until his round of torture with Draco was up. It’s been only a few days since the last one but he wasn’t sure whether he preferred to have some time pass between each one as to not murder Malfoy, or to do them close to each other to be done with them as soon as possible.  
  
Everyone was at the game. Even Hermione was there, despite her lack of interest in the sport. She _ did _ offer to stay back with Harry, but he didn’t want to hold his friend back from a well-deserved break from studying, so he sat alone in the Common Room, intensely focusing on the crackling fire and rhythmically throwing his wand into the air, then letting it fall back into his palm. He didn’t find it a good idea to be anywhere near the pitch. Not yet at least.  
  
‘Maybe I can get close enough to hear what’s happening.’ Harry thought and immediately decided to act on it. He caught his wand mid-air as he shot up from the couch and rushed out of the Common Room through the portrait hole. He was going for the Entrance Hall, so that maybe by getting into the gardens he would be able to hear the commentary. But his hopes were short-lived. As he was about to turn right and outside of the castle, he heard that low, almost sleepy, voice coming from a few meters behind him.  
  
‘Mr. Potter, just the person I was looking for.’ Harry stopped at his tracks and sighed angrily before he turned around to find Snape next to whom was standing a very annoyed Malfoy. It seemed like they had been in a fight.  
  
‘How can I help you, Professor?’ Harry replied, trying to conceal his irritation.  
  
‘I think it’s time for your second Detention Mr Potter.’ Snape sneered.

‘What? But Professor McGonagall didn’t send me a note!’ scoffed Harry and tightened his grip around his wand.   
  
‘Are you questioning my authority, Mr Potter?’ asked Snape and Harry looked at Malfoy, who should have been smiling smugly at him, but for some reason, was looking at his shoes indifferently instead. Harry looked back at Snape and pressed his lips tightly to hold himself back from saying something he would most definitely regret.   
  
‘No, sir.’ Harry muttered and followed Snape who had yet to tell them where they were going.   
  
He knew that Snape had done that on purpose; he wanted to keep Harry as far away from Quidditch as he could. Harry felt his stomach drop as he looked back at the Entrance Hall from where they were walking away. He was so close to escaping. He felt stupid for not using the Marauder’s Map. He probably would have been saved. If only his excitement hadn’t taken over his mind.   
  
Snape stopped right outside of the library’s entrance. He stretched his bony white hand towards the boys. Harry groaned and handed over his wand, then they both turned to look at Malfoy, who was standing unimpressed and silent with his arms crossing his chest. Malfoy cocked his eyebrow and then realized.   
  
‘I don’t have it.’ he replied    
  
‘Why is that?’ Snape questioned him, very obviously not convinced.    
  
‘I left it in my room before  _ you  _ burst in.’    
  
‘Oh please,’ Harry said annoyed ‘You’re a terrible liar.’ Malfoy squinted his eyes at him but Snape managed to intervene on time.   
  
‘Unless you want your Detentions extended, Mr Potter, I suggest you let me handle such matters’ Snape’s monotone voice had the same soothing effect on Harry’s ears like nails on a chalkboard, but the truth was he couldn’t bear the thought of spending more time than necessary with Malfoy, so he stepped back. With a simple ‘ _ Accio _ ’ spell, Malfoy’s wand, as if it was pulled by a string, left Malfoy’s inside pocket and flew swiftly into Snape’s hand, next to Harry’s.    
  
‘As I said to you only a few minutes ago, Mr Malfoy, you’re hanging on by a thread. Do  _ not _ make me cut it.’ Snape moved away from Malfoy’s miffed face and looked at both of the boys. ‘Madam Pince will be keeping an eye on you. She will inform you about your tasks as well. I expect excellent behaviour and nothing less. Understood?’    
  
Harry felt annoyed that Snape talked to them as if it was their first day at the school, but once again, said nothing. They nodded silently and Snape wasted no time to turn around and leave, creating a princessy flare to the back of his long black mantle.    
Draco opened the door and walked right past Madam Pince as if he already knew what they were there to do. Harry wasn’t so rushed though. He slowly closed the door behind him and took a look in the library. It appeared that no one was currently using the Library. They were all probably at Quidditch, or in their Dormitories. ‘ _ Who would waste their Saturday in the Library anyway? _ ’ Harry thought, apparently forgetting about Hermione.    
  
‘Hello, Mad-’Harry was interrupted by the woman’s vigorous shushing, which once again was louder than his voice previously was, ‘There’s no one here’ he -now- whispered back to her, but didn’t get a response to that. ‘What am I to do?’ he asked her lowly.   
  
‘Dust off the books I’ve gathered for you in aisle twelve and put them back into place. Make sure there are no Book Bugs left in there, please.’ she replied without taking her eyes off her quill and parchment.    
  
Harry stood there looking at Madam Pince and tried to figure out what she meant by Book Bugs. He hadn’t heard of such a thing before. At least he couldn’t recall ever learning about them. He shrugged his elbows and went to the far back of the library where aisle twelve was located. Several carts were waiting for him in neat order, all crammed with books not so neatly placed. Harry felt like crying, but then on the other side of the long aisle of bookshelves and carts, the quiet but very much annoyed murmuring, reminded him that they weren’t all his responsibility.   
  
Harry picked up the first book he found and ran his fingers all the way from the top to the bottom of the hardcover, revealing a streak of its true dark purple colour that was hiding underneath coats of dust. On the silver handle of the cart, Harry found a folded blue cloth that he assumed was to aid them in their attempts to clean the books.    
  
But still, Harry had no idea what the Book Bugs were, so he didn’t know how he should check for them. His only choice was to ask his partner in Detention, who unfortunately for him happened to be the guy that had broken his nose twice that year. The restrictive measure of not speaking like normal people despite the empty Library forced him to have to walk up to him in order to ask him a simple question. And so he did.   
  
‘What do you want, Potter?’ Malfoy asked without even batting an eyelash to Harry.   
  
‘Do you have any idea how to check for Book Bugs?’ Harry asked. Malfoy froze mid-wiping and looked at Harry.    
  
‘What?’ he asked   
  
‘Madam Pince said we needed to check for-’   
  
‘There are BOOK BUGS in here?’ Malfoy yelled disgusted and threw the book he was holding on the floor. ‘UGH!’ he squirmed and walked away from the books. A violent hush echoed from the other end of the library. ‘There is NO ONE HERE!’ Malfoy yelled back frustrated but was faced with the same response from Madam Pince.    
  
‘You’re scared of bugs?’ Harry chuckled at Malfoy, who had just now realized how ridiculous he looked. He stood correctly again and fixed his robes a little.   
  
‘Don’t be ridiculous.’ Malfoy scoffed and picked the book he threw back up, very carefully with his index and thumb, touching it only as much as he had to.   
  
‘Fine, how do we find them, then?’ Harry persisted, secretly amused by Malfoy’s desperate attempts to hide his fear.    
  
‘Why should I know? Just shuffle the pages, I suppose.’    
  
‘And what do we do with them?’   
  
‘Kill them.  _ Violently _ .’ Malfoy murmured as if he was talking to himself ‘And quit it with the questions, Potter.’ he said, returning to his usual angered tone.    
Harry wiped the books’ front and back then hastily shuffled the pages to each one, before placing them on the shelves. Sometimes he looked over at Malfoy, who missed the middle step over and over. Harry chuckled to himself but refrained from making a comment just yet. He had finished about twenty books before he finally found out what a Book Bug was.   
  
He saw a thumb-sized creature, covered in a bright silver colour everywhere but its four red eyes; two bigger ones on the top and a couple of smaller ones on the bottom. In between the eyes, it had a tiny trunk that he used to glue itself on the book and eight hair-thin legs, four on each side. There were a couple of glittering wings on its back that only seemed to activate and buzz when he picked it up. He unglued it from the page, causing a very faint pop almost inaudible and held it between his fingers, admiring it.   
  
‘Come on, you can’t possibly be afraid of this tiny thing.’ Harry showed Malfoy his discovery and it was as if he could see his blonde hair rising on the back of his neck when Malfoy laid eyes upon it.   
  
‘I’m not.’ Malfoy somehow managed to reply   
  
‘Fine then,’ Harry started quickly pacing over at Malfoy,   
  
‘Wh- What are you doing?’ Malfoy almost cried as he stumbled backwards, knocking everything around him away.   
  
‘Proving a point.’ Harry sneered and kept moving towards Malfoy, who looked as if he was being chased by a serial killer.    
Malfoy slipped on a book as he walked into a dead end and inadvertently grabbed on a shelf on his left to pick himself up, resulting in several fallen books on the floor.   
  
‘Fine!’ he yelled at Harry as he approached dangerously and Harry stopped with his smirk widening. ‘I am not a fan of Book Bugs. Pleased?’    
  
‘Not a fan? You wrecked a bookshelf, you’re  _ terrified _ of them!’    
  
‘Shut up.’ Malfoy bent down and started picking up the books he dropped previously and that’s when he noticed something that none of them had before. Harry noticed Draco’s sudden fixation to the back of the bookshelf and curiosity struck him as well. He went closer and noticed a round, rusted copper door handle in the back. Malfoy glanced at him and pushed him away.   
  
‘Get that thing away from me.’ he told him, and Harry looked at the little Book Bug that had, apparently, glued itself on Harry's thumb. Harry sighed and proceeded to shove his arm in his pocket so that the tiny creature was out of sight.   
  
‘What is that? I don’t remember seeing it before.’ Harry asked. Draco didn’t reply and kept staring at the handle significantly intrigued. He reached for the door handle, but his attempt was cut short by the Gryffindor’s vigorous pull of his sleeve.    
  
‘What?’ Draco asked and looked at Harry resentfully.   
  
‘Don’t be dumb. We don’t know what’s in there.’ Harry whispered back ‘And we don’t have our wands.’   
  
‘Thanks for stating the obvious.’ scoffed Malfoy    
  
‘Well, you didn’t seem to notice.’ Harry was unintentionally rude and enraged Draco even more.    
  
‘You are not leaving this place until the books are in order.’ a violent whisper startled both of them ‘And what exactly happened here?’ Madam Pince looked furious; her thin black brows forming a rough V on her forehead and her lips pressed tightly together, creating a rather intimidating image. Her eyes wandered for a short amount of time before she noticed the round copper handle right in front of which they were both standing.   
‘I’ll take care of these. Back to your posts now.’ her voice sounded awfully flat and gruff all of a sudden.    
  
The boys left muted and walked back to the carts full of books they had to finish, with the thought of that peculiar discovery infesting their minds. When Harry tried to reach for a book, he was reminded of the Book Bug stuck on the top of his thumb. He attempted to pull it off, only to be met with excruciating pain; as if his skin was ripping apart even though the bug barely seemed to move. The unexpected pain almost made him scream, but he barely managed to hold himself back, when he remembered Madam Pince’s not so pleased mood, from only a few seconds back.   
  
Harry decided to give it another try. Approach it in a different light. He hid behind a cart and looked at the creature that seemed unbothered and asleep. Harry tried squeezing and pulling on the bug’s trunk, violently shaking his hand in hopes it would get disoriented and fall and even pressing down on it with his shoe to either smash it or pull it away aggressively, but the pain was unbearable for him to do alone.    
  
He peeked his head from the top of the cart he was hiding behind and looked at Malfoy, whose facial expression could only be described as a generous mix of disgust, anger and fear. Harry also noticed that Madam Pince had already taken care of the books and walked back to her front desk, all the way across the library. He tried weighing his options of what he should do, but nothing better crossed his mind at that point. He had no wand, a painful parasite stuck on his finger and an already very irritated Detention Supervisor. Harry forced himself to swallow his pride and walk up to Draco.   
  
‘I need your help.’ Harry muttered under his breath.   
  
‘What?’ Malfoy chuckled in disbelief, ‘The Chosen One falling in my- Absolutely  _ NOT _ !’ Malfoy’s spirit instantly changed when Harry presented his problem to him.   
  
‘It’s not ideal for me either, you know,’ Harry replied snarkily ‘But unless you want to go through all those books alone, you better help me.’   
  
‘Why don’t you ask Madam Pince for help and quit pestering me?’ Draco turned his back on Harry and disgustedly picked up a book again.   
  
‘Right, why didn’t  _ I _ think of that?’ Harry said sarcastically.   
  
‘It’s a known fact that your brain malfunctions, no need to flaunt it.’ Malfoy smirked and Harry grasped on his pants tightly, keeping himself from turning Draco black and blue.   
  
‘She is already mad at us for whatever reason and if we irritate her more, it probably won’t be good for either of us.’ Harry desperately hoped for Malfoy’s cooperation, but he knew Malfoy’s stubbornness would make this task almost impossible.   
  
‘Too much of a wimp to do it yourself, I suppose?’ Malfoy turned around to face Harry again, with a taunting smile still on his face.   
  
‘I tried!’ Harry tried to defend himself ‘It’s too painful. But you wouldn’t know, you’re too scared to even look at one.’   
  
‘I’ve actually removed a couple of them from me. Hence, why I don’t like them.’   
  
‘Just do it.’ Harry mumbled defeated by the fact that Malfoy could do it to himself and Harry couldn’t, even though Harry wasn’t sure whether Malfoy was being honest or trying to seem superior like he usually did.   
  
‘I am not taking orders from you, Potter. Try a different approach.’ Malfoy smirked and Harry knew exactly what he wanted, but he wasn’t sure he was willing to say it. Maybe he could live with a life long attachment on his hand, or at least wait until Hermione would find a way to help him- painlessly.   
  
‘Fine,’ Harry succumbed, mainly due to his fear and lack of knowledge about the Book Bug, ‘Will you help me?’ there was a long pause and Malfoy waited patiently with the smug smile still on his face ‘ _ Please _ ?’ Harry almost choked as he spoke that last word and Malfoy’s face glimmered contentedly.    
  
‘I’m gonna enjoy this so much more than you will.’ the Slytherin chuckled and Harry could already feel his stomach tied in knots. ‘Lie down.’ Malfoy said and started pulling off his robe.   
  
‘What?’ Harry accidentally raised his tone, and momentarily froze waiting for the shushing of Madam Pince, which thankfully never arrived. ‘Just rip it off my finger!’   
  
‘That won’t work. Trust me on this.’ Malfoy gently folded his robe and placed it on top one of the carts. Harry chuckled loudly.   
  
‘You did not just ask me to trust you.’   
  
‘It’s the only choice you have right now, Potter. And I am not planning on going through all these books by myself.’   
  
‘I hate you.’ babbled Harry as he sunk on the floor dubiously.   
  
‘Feeling’s mutual.’ Malfoy replied and carefully walked over Harry.    
  
He looked down at Harry’s stretched arm and grimaced at the sight of the Book Bug once more. Draco gently placed his shoe next to Harry’s wrist and pressed down firmly. Harry was concerned but said nothing. He just looked at Draco with his eyes wide open. Draco kneeled his unoccupied leg so that he could easily reach Harry’s hand and looked at it carefully. He took a deep breath to prepare himself and then turned to Harry.   
  
‘If Madam Pince finds out, it’s on you.’ Malfoy said and firmly pressed his hand against Harry’s mouth. Harry didn’t have time to panic, before Malfoy ripped the Book Bug off his finger, causing Harry a pain that he could only imagine was what pulling his skin off would feel like. Harry started groaning in pain and gripped on Draco’s arm. Despite feeling Harry’s nails digging in his skin, Malfoy pushed his palm harder on Harry’s face. ‘ _ Shut it _ .’ he whispered annoyed and hastily looked around them to make sure no one took notice of what was happening.    
  
Soon enough Harry’s breathing slowed down and his grasp eased around Malfoy’s arm. After he was sure that Harry was done screaming, Draco yanked his arm away from the Gryffindor, threw the bug down and smashed it with his foot.    
  
Harry feared to look at his finger because he was certain that most of the skin would be gone, but he figured that if he had the strength to hold back his tears when Malfoy ripped the Book Bug off, he would have the strength to look at his finger. He pulled his trembling hand in front of his face and surprised himself when he saw barely any sign of injury on his thumb. The only thing left behind, was a pink rash-like mark on the top of it. Harry contemplated whether he should thank Malfoy or not, but decided against it. Besides, Malfoy looked like he was over it already. He was next to his cart again, mumbling angrily about the disgusting school they were forced to be in and so on.   
  
As they resumed working in silence, Harry kept glancing over at Malfoy without realising it himself. It had struck him off as weird the fact that Malfoy actually helped him, even though they both had very limited choices to choose from.   
  
When they were done, about a couple of hours later, a few students had already started going inside the library and commotion could be heard every time the door opened, signifying the end of the Quidditch match. With that reminder, Harry felt sick to his stomach. Did they win? Did they lose? They were playing Hufflepuff today and if they lost to them Harry would be considered to be at fault. Whatever the truth was, he could not possibly avoid it forever.    
  
The boys reached Madam Pince’s desk, who had somehow acquired their wands, and picked them up, ready to leave. Malfoy turned to look at Harry.   
  
‘Not a word.’ his voice was so low that could be mistaken for a growl.   
  
‘Get over yourself.’ Harry replied and after an awkward walk to the end of the hallway together, they parted ways.    
  
Harry looked around and tried to figure out the outcome of the match, but the few students he passed by did not seem to be affected by the results of the game; they probably were students from the other two Houses. When he reached the portrait, Harry considered taking the long way back to the Common Room instead, but the thought of accidentally running on anyone from the team, or the Gryffindor House in general, was more nerve-wracking. He also thought of asking the Fat Lady to tell him, but knew she would only make his life living difficult. So Harry decided to just rip the band-aid off.    
  
He gave the password and climbed in the portrait hole. As he was getting closer to the exit, he still couldn’t hear anything and the sickness he previously felt, flew through the roof. He could not remember whether the shortcut was exceptionally soundproof, or if the game went as bad as he feared. He took a deep breath and jumped out of the portrait hole.    
  
He was relieved to see everyone cheering and smiling. A very excited Hermione ran to him the moment she had spotted him.    
  
‘Where have you been?’ she asked    
  
‘I’ll catch you up later.’ Harry replied, avoiding to ruin the celebratory moment.   
  
‘I told you it was Snape’s doing.’ said Ron after Harry explained to him why he was missing when they came back.   
  
‘And what exactly were you doing in the library?’ Hermione asked   
  
‘Madam Pince made us dust off some piles of books and check them for Book Bugs.’ Harry sighed in the reminder of his encounter. Then he questioned whether he should tell his friends about the door handle they found, practically hidden in the back of the library.    
  
‘Book Bugs? Huh! You don’t want them to leech on you, I’m telling you.’ Ron chuckled and snapped him out of his thoughts.   
  
‘Oh, that happened.’ Harry showed them his thumb, still pink on the top where the Book Bug’s trunk was suctioning on.   
  
‘Madam Pomfrey must be tired of seeing you by now.’ laughed Hermione   
  
‘I didn’t go to Madam Pomfrey. Madam Pince was already pretty mad at us about something; I didn’t want to annoy her more.’   
  
‘Then how? Did you remove it yourself?’ Ron asked astonished and jumped up to take a closer look at Harry's thumb.   
  
‘Not exactly.’ Harry pondered. Both of his friends stared at him, hoping he wouldn’t say what they thought he would. Even Harry felt a bit embarrassed about it. Still, he now had to tell them. And he did.   
  
‘You  _ did not _ !’ Ron’s voice pitched up a bit. ‘What pissed off Madam Pince so much that you had no other choice but to ask  _ him _ ?’   
  
‘Well, I found the Book Bug, right?’ both of his friends nodded in agreement, though still shocked, ‘Malfoy seemed terrified of them, but I didn’t know what they were.’   
  
‘You would know if you had just-’ Hermione stopped mid-sentence since she understood it was not the time for a lecture.   
  
‘Anyway’ Harry continued, ‘When I found one I thought it would be funny to scare him a bit. And maybe I took it a bit far,’ he paused ‘Malfoy screamed and knocked a whole bookshelf over.’   
  
‘That’s it?’ asked Ron progressively getting angrier at Harry.    
  
‘She looked scary!’ Harry tried to defend himself ‘Even Malfoy knew so. But I don’t think it had to do with the mess, rather than something we found.’ Harry said hesitantly   
  
‘Well, go on!’ Hermione said impatiently, as her curiosity struck.   
  
‘It was a door handle behind the shelf from which the books fell. I don’t remember seeing that before.’   
  
‘Me neither.’ muttered Hermione, as she mapped down the library with her mind.   
  
‘She definitely saw it.’ Harry stopped and thought for a bit. ‘Do you think it was a hidden room or something?’   
  
‘Wouldn’t the Map show it?’ asked Ron.   
  
‘Not if they hadn’t discovered it themselves.’ Harry replied.   
  
‘But if it had been there this whole time, wouldn’t someone else have noticed?’ Hermione asked but none of them had an answer.   
  
‘Madam Pince also seemed a little puzzled when she ran into it. Maybe it wasn’t supposed to be there.’ Harry said, now happy that the topic had changed.   
  
‘Then don’t dwell on it. I don’t think that this is the year to mess with stuff like that. You don’t need any more troubles, Harry.’ said Hermione, but Harry felt different now that he managed to give it more thought. He was sure that Malfoy was going to return for it, and Harry didn’t want to be the one to miss out.   
  
‘But wait a minute’ Ron spoke, ‘Book Bugs are torture to remove. How did you take it out without Madam Pince finding out?’   
  
‘Malfoy nearly suffocated me with his palm, to keep me silent. I mean he only covered my mouth but he was wearing perfume. Why would he wear perfume? He barely eats, he’s at school, doing Detention and whines all day. What does he need it for?’ Harry’s sudden outburst confused both Hermione and Ron, but they decided not to say something about it. Now that Harry felt sure about Malfoy’s plans, he felt angry for some inexplicable reason.    
  
‘Do you think he’ll say something about what happened?’ Ron asked, concerned.   
  
‘I doubt it.’ Harry said with a calmer voice ‘He told me not to speak a word of it, why would he tell?’   
  
‘ _ You _ told  _ us _ , despite that, though. So what stops him from doing the same?’ Hermione asked.   
  
‘I don’t think he wants his pals to know that he helped me remove a Book Bug.’ Harry insisted ‘Think about it. Malfoy helped me. He wouldn’t dare. I think.’   
  
Ron and Hermione started chatting up shortly after, but Harry started thinking about what he said. For some reason when he told them that Malfoy would be embarrassed to tell his friends, Harry felt his stomach drop. As if he was offended. The same feeling occurred when he remembered Malfoy himself telling him to keep his mouth shut about it.    
  
‘ _ But why am I bothered by it? _ ’ Harry thought ‘ _ This is textbook Malfoy behaviour. _ ’ he lingered on these thoughts for a while and then decided to try and push them to the back of his head. It was probably nothing. Now he had to figure out a way to go to the library after hours before Malfoy could.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you made it to the end, ilyyyy. Happy Holidays! Feel free to comment or inbox!


	4. The Hunt of the Handles

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Harry returns to the library during the night and ends up locked in with Malfoy by what seems to be a hex. They struggle to figure out how to leave and when they think they have made it a sudden change of events is about to make their night even harder.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry this chapter is so late! It's exams season at my university and I am struggling haha. It will be over by February, where I hope to be able to return to my standard updating (weekly/ semi-weekly). Anyway, I hope you enjoy this!

Harry twisted and turned underneath his covers as he waited for the familiar snoring of Ron to be heard. Maybe it was his impatience to jump off his bed, but it seemed to him that it was taking longer than usual for his friend to fall asleep. He wanted to look at the Map but he wouldn’t be able to see anything unless he cast a light spell, which would give away Harry’s sleeplessness, something he did not wish to do. The inability to check the Map felt like an itch to the back of his neck. He was certain that Malfoy would have already found his way out of his dormitory, and would be on the way to the library.  
  
It was the first time in six years that Ron’s snoring seemed melodic to Harry’s ears. He almost slipped off his bed as he struggled to untangle himself from the covers; he moved frantically, for his body could not possibly catch up with his thoughts. He put on his shoes, grabbed the Invisibility Cloak and opened the Map. Harry was right; Malfoy was, in fact, in the library.  
  
He hid under the Cloak and bolted out of the room, clutching the Map in his hand, just to make sure he would not run into someone and miss his chance altogether. His footsteps were thunderous, but he was running at such a fast pace that even if someone were to hear him, they wouldn’t have enough time to spot him.  
  
Harry almost slipped on the marble flooring when he tried to stop beside the library door. Thankfully, he avoided that with a few arm-wiggling moves and some back and forth rocking. He caught up his breath and folded Cloak and Map, then placed them both in his pocket, before he made any moves. He leaned over the wooden door and tried to listen for any action, forgetting about the soundproofing spells that effectively kept the library quiet from and to the outside world.  
  
He opened the door with a strong push and confidence and walked into a very flustered Malfoy, who was very obviously trying to conceal a piece of paper by crumpling it inside his fist.  
  
‘What’s wrong with you?’ Malfoy asked, obviously agitated and shoved the scribbled paper into his pocket. The ink must’ve still been wet since Draco’s palm was covered in smudges.  
  
‘Don’t play dumb, we both know why you’re here, Malfoy.’  
  
‘I have no idea what you’re going off about.’ Malfoy’s tone seemed sincere but Harry knew him too well to fall for it.  
  
‘Really?’ Harry asked dubiously.  
  
‘Really.’ he replied with the same emotionless voice as before.  
  
‘You’re not here for the door handle? The one we found this morning?’ Harry started getting frustrated.  
  
‘The door- Are you insane? I forgot about it the second I took my eyes from it. Why would I come looking for it?’  
  
‘What were you doing in the library then?’   
  
‘Homework.’ Malfoy said as if it was obvious.  
  
‘There’s no book on the table.’   
  
‘I don’t need one.’  
  
‘You’re lying,’ Harry crossed his arms in front of his chest ‘Show me.’  
  
‘What?’ Malfoy asked confounded.  
  
‘Show me what you were writing.’ Harry insisted  
  
‘I do not have to prove myself to you, Potter.’ Malfoy sounded defensive.  
  
‘Fine. I’ll find out myself.’ Before Malfoy could react, Harry reached for the boy’s right pocket in an attempt to grab the paper hidden inside of it. Malfoy pushed him back and that was when Harry came up with an easier way to acquire it. As he pointed his wand towards the Slytherin and mouthed the words ‘Accio’, he was stopped.  
  
‘Alright, fine!’ Malfoy interrupted him, in hopes he’d avoid the exposure by the same spell for the second time in a day. Whatever was on that paper must have been really valuable to him to protect it like that.   
  
‘I _did_ come here for the stupid doorhandle, but it wasn’t there. Then I was preoccupied with something unrelated and that’s why I stayed.’ Malfoy lowered his head.   
  
He wasn’t used to admitting things to Potter, yet it had happened twice that day, and it hit his ego more than he’d like to admit. Harry smiled in glee as he had once again proved his point. But his smile dropped again as he thought more carefully about what Malfoy had just said.  
  
‘What do you mean it wasn’t there?’  
  
‘What could I possibly mean by that?’ Draco responded scornfully.  
  
‘Are you sure you checked the correct shelf?’ Harry asked.  
  
‘Yes, I checked the correct-’ he stopped mid-sentence annoyed, ‘Why don’t you go and see for yourself?’   
  
‘Fine.’ sighed Harry and hurried to the back of the library. As he turned to the left and into the corridor, a voice echoed from the other side of the room.  
  
‘Potter, you idiot, what did you do to the door?’  
  
‘What?’ Harry asked puzzled and walked towards the shelves in the back.  
  
‘The door. It doesn’t open.’ Malfoy nagged  
  
‘Then Alohomora it or something. ’ Harry crouched down and started pushing books around.  
  
‘What a great idea! Why didn’t I think of that?’ Malfoy mocked but he ignored him.  
  
Harry started shoving a few books around on the shelves. He didn’t remember where exactly he had seen it, he just had a general idea. Malfoy kept going on and on in the background, but the sound of his voice was automatically blocked by Harry’s ears after years of enduring his drama, and it only came off as muffled sounds at that point. Sooner than later, Harry was both pleased and unnerved to be facing the round copper doorknob once more.  
  
‘I knew it!’ Harry yelled and immediately brought Malfoy’s attention back to him.  
  
‘What?’  
  
‘The doorknob is here.’  
  
‘What?’ Malfoy repeated, this time louder and confused, then hurried over to him.  
  
‘Do you ever speak a word that’s true?’ Harry asked him as he squinted his eyes and looked at the knob.  
  
‘I wasn’t lying!’ he insisted and then looked at Harry dubiously, ‘You put it there, didn’t you, Potter?’   
  
‘How could I have done that?’   
  
‘You came here before I did, took it and then put it back when you returned.’  
  
‘Are you listening to yourself?’ Harry asked irritated, ‘You’re telling me that I came here, unscrewed a door handle, waited for you to come in, and when I returned -after somehow knowing you were here-, screwed it back on, all that just to mess with you?’ Malfoy stood silent. Hearing Potter saying it out loud really shined the light on his nonsense, but he decided to stick with it.  
  
‘Then how come you found it and I didn’t?’ Malfoy asked  
  
‘You probably looked at the wrong place. Either that or you seriously need glasses.’  
  
‘Please.’ he scoffed and reached for the knob, but Harry pushed him away.  
  
‘I found it, I use it.’ Harry said stiffly. Malfoy, whose strength appeared to be lessening by the day, attempted to shove Harry away several times and failed each one. Harry subsequently managed to grab the handle; then they both stood still. Harry slowly pulled his wand out of his robe with his free hand and Malfoy did the same. He looked at the copper visible through his fingers and drew a big breath.  
  
‘Just do it, already!’ Draco was fidgeting.   
  
Harry decided to follow Malfoy’s order and through the pounding of his heart and the sickness of his stomach, he swallowed hard and with a sudden move, he turned the handle. It disappeared in front of their eyes. They stood stunned; Harry looked at his fingers in distrust, and hesitantly pulled his hand back.  
  
‘What just happened?’ Harry asked and Malfoy shrugged.   
  
A thud sound startled the boys who instinctively held their wands tighter and in readiness. Harry took the first step forward and Malfoy followed a little farther behind. While slowly pacing around the library, both of them were smart enough to stay quiet. Whether it was a familiar face or a completely new -and potentially dangerous one- they would be in trouble. So it served them better to keep a low profile, at least until they figured out what caused the noise.   
  
When they had walked to the end of the aisle they previously were in, they stood at the long corridor that led to every single branch that the library offered, the searching game became scarier for both of them. Harry looked at Draco and Draco looked back; the concern on their faces was obvious.   
  
‘I check left, you check right.’ Harry whispered and Malfoy complied.   
  
They turned around and standing back to back to each other, they slowly walked past several corridors, while carefully checking from afar. Draco’s backbones gently touched against Harry’s back. Under normal circumstances, Harry would describe that touch as cold and horrid; yet now, the moment their backs touched, a sense of static grazed his skin and raised his hair in a blink of an eye; he was afraid to lean back at him because he feared that he could break him.  
  
In the dead silence, even their footsteps sounded awfully loud. Four corridors later, Harry felt the bony back lift of his and heard a condescending ‘Tsk’ from Malfoy, who was now walking towards the aisle in front of him. Harry turned around hastily and before he could say anything to stop Malfoy, he spoke first.  
  
‘A stupid book fell.’ Malfoy said and a sigh of relief escaped Harry.   
  
But Malfoy’s look quickly turned from annoyed to confused after he picked the book up and attempted to put it back. Harry hurried there and didn’t have to ask to find out what caused this sudden mood change. The door handle, just like it were four aisles back to the left, was now bolted on a shelf there, as innocently looking as ever.  
  
‘There are more?’ Harry asked and turned to Draco  
  
‘I think it’s a puzzle or…’ he looked at the book in his hand named _“Healing at Home with Herbs”_ , ‘maybe a game.’ he completed his sentence.  
  
‘Or it’s a prank. A joke?’ Harry thought out loud and Malfoy glared at him without any hesitation. ‘It could be!’ he insisted.  
  
‘It seems we can’t leave until we solve it, so we’ll have to find out eventually.’ Draco murmured.  
  
‘We can’t leave?’   
  
‘Do I have to spoon-feed you everything? The door won’t open, Potter!’ Malfoy was clearly annoyed.  
  
‘Right, the door.’ Harry muttered. He wasn’t sure if the door was somehow hexed shut, or if Malfoy was just an idiot who didn’t know how doors function. Nevertheless, he decided not to test the waters at that moment and just take his word for it.   
‘So, we need to solve the puzzle in order to get out?’ Harry continued.  
  
‘You need my help to figure that out too? Pathetic.’ Malfoy replied and Harry immediately forgot about the feelings of empathy that preoccupied him only moments earlier. He returned to his set emotion towards the Slytherin: uncontrollable _rage_.   
  
Harry saw the wrinkled paper poking out from Draco’s pocket and curiosity started piquing. Why was he so secretive about it? It most likely was not school work, therefore what could he be writing _that_ late at night all by himself? Certainly not a haiku; he did not strike off as a poet. He considered taking it while Draco wasn’t paying any attention to it. But that would be an invasion of privacy. Then again, who cared about privacy if the writings on that paper had something to do with his oh-so-hushed plans, that not even Snape himself could figure out.   
  
He was so caught up in his thoughts that when he noticed Draco’s hand on the handle, it was too late to do something about it. Draco twisted it to the left and once again, it disappeared right in front of them, leaving no trace of its existence behind.   
  
‘Now what?’ Draco asked impatiently and Harry shushed him since he started figuring out the pattern early on.   
  
An identical thud sounded and the boys raced each other to the next fallen book. They repeated the process over and over, making a competition out of it (whoever arrived first got to twist the handle) and Malfoy picked up and held every single one of the fallen books tightly onto his chest. After five books had fallen the two boys stood still waiting for the next ‘bang’. The Slytherin quickly started losing his patience after the standard waiting time had passed, whilst the Gryffindor hyper-focused so much to hear the sound that he didn’t notice the substantial time difference between their previous rounds.  
  
‘That’s it?’ Harry snapped out of it after a while.  
  
‘Stating the obvious _yet again_ , I see.’ said Malfoy and laid the books on the floor  
  
‘Nothing happened, though.’  
  
‘Because we haven’t solved it still, you idiot!’  
  
Harry started thinking that maybe being sleepless so many nights impacted his ability to think properly because even though he wouldn’t admit it aloud, he knew Draco was right getting pissed off at him. He couldn’t put two and two together. But if lack of sleep was the case, Malfoy shouldn’t be able to form a proper sentence, given the whole under-eye circles as a hint.   
  
Malfoy had placed the books in the order he had picked them up;   
_  
“Healing at Home with Herbs”_ _  
_ _“Intermediate Transfiguration”_ _  
_ _“Alchemy, Ancient Art and Science”_ _  
_ _“Rune Dictionary”_ _  
_ _“Asiatic Anti-Venoms”_ _  
_ _  
_ ‘They have no connection between them.’ Harry said  
  
‘Obviously,’ Draco said and kept looking intensely at them ‘It’s probably an acronym. Maybe a name.’   
  
‘You won’t be able to figure it out, you know.’ Harry grinned; he finally spotted something that Draco hadn’t.   
  
‘And why is that, Potter?’ Malfoy’s look and tone indicated a lot of irritation towards Harry, ready to be released at any moment.  
  
‘You’re missing a book.’ Harry’s calm smile indirectly made Malfoy’s blood boil.  
  
‘Go fetch it then!’  
  
‘I’m not your assistant, Malfoy. And I don’t remember which one it was.’ Harry murmured the last sentence, hoping Draco wouldn’t notice.   
  
‘It doesn’t have to be the same book, you imbecile.’ his anger started spilling out ‘It’s an acronym, we only need the first letter.’  
  
‘ _If_ you are right, that is.’   
  
‘I _am_ right. Ah, forget it.’ Malfoy jolted back up on his feet and rushed to the back of the library to acquire a book from that same row, in which they had spotted the handle twice. He strode back, holding a title that read _“_ _Charms of Defence and Deterrence”_ and placed it at the front of the book arrangement. Harry hovered over them.  
  
‘Chiara?’ he mumbled ‘Doesn’t ring a bell. Do you think we have to put the letters in a different order?’  
  
‘No, I think that’s the name.’  
  
‘The door must be open then’ Harry said, earning yet another diminishing look from Malfoy.  
  
‘Do you actually think it is going to be that easy?’ Harry didn’t reply. Truth be told, nothing ever went smoothly for him, so why would this time be any different.   
  
‘I could go look through some of the school files, maybe there’s something helpful about her in there.’  
  
‘Finally making yourself useful, Potter.’ sneered Malfoy as he picked up the books and stacked them onto each other.   
  
Harry debated kicking him in his face but ended up releasing his anger on the neat stack of books that Draco balanced on his bent knee rather carelessly. He walked away and didn’t look behind him even after he heard Malfoy yelling vile words at him until he was out of sight.  
  
The library eluded an eerie and unwelcoming feeling during the night. And it became more prominent with each step he took. He knew Draco was in there with him, but it didn’t comfort him at all. Being alone was not what scared him. Rather, the tingling sensation on the back of his neck that indicated he was being watched, was. Every couple of steps, he’d jolt his head back. He even considered the possibility that Malfoy was playing a prank on him, but somehow he knew it wasn’t him.   
  
As he stood in front of the filing cabinets he felt overwhelmed just by looking at the extend of them. A small piece of worn-out parchment that had been stuck on the left wall frame, luckily, gave the boy the chance to breathe properly again, after realising he wouldn’t have to look into every single one of the files. The yellowed from age parchment had the phrase _‘Can’t find what you’re looking for? Just ask the cabinets!’_ scribbled on it.   
  
He knew that had Hermione been there, she would have scolded him for his ignorance about the school library, but at that moment he just felt proud of himself for noticing it, before mindlessly starting to look after the files one by one.  
  
But despite seeing the note on the parchment, Harry still wasn’t sure how to ask for it. Was there a process? Maybe a phrase? Where should he say the name? He hesitantly leaned next to the parchment.  
  
‘Hi- Hello, er, I was wondering, maybe, could you bring me the files with the name Chiara on them? C as in curtain, H as in house, I as in-’  
  
‘What are you doing?’ a very genuine concern eluded Malfoy’s voice and interrupted the Gryffindor’s spelling attempt. Harry stood up straight again.  
  
‘It, um,’ for some reason he felt embarrassed, ‘It says here to ask the cabinets if I …’  
  
‘You’re not supposed to say it, you buffoon, you’re supposed to write it! On the empty space right underneath.’  
  
‘Did you swallow a dictionary earlier? What even are those words you pretentious fuck?’ Harry’s face reddened due to a grateful mix of embarrassment and anger that simmered underneath his skin for a long time. Thankfully, the dim lighting didn’t allow for that colour change to be very obvious.  
  
‘Maybe if you visited the library more often, or even picked up a book every now and then, you could have been much less of a burden tonight, Potter.’ Malfoy replied without missing a beat.   
  
He pulled out his wand to call his quill which was laying on the very front of the library, where Malfoy was earlier seated. Within seconds the quill flew in his palm and he proceeded to write down the name which shortly after disappeared. A few cabinets, with different letters inscribed on them, opened and closed and a few files stacked upon one another, elegantly flew down on Malfoy’s open arms. He ran his thumb on the back of the files creating a soft tapping noise as they fell back on top of each other, and he stopped midway. He split them and tossed the upper half to Harry, who almost dropped them out of surprise.   
  
They took a seat on the nearest table, sitting at opposite ends for the pure reason of making their exasperation clear. Harry gave two looks at a file and one look at Draco, who did the same right after, each barely missing the respective gaze of their opponent by a mere second.   
  
Scoffs and sighs periodically escaped them, after flipping through pages quite loudly, to make sure the other side was aware of their progress. Harry had already gone through the files of Chiara Litz, Chiara Foster and Chiara Vorhees but nothing ever seemed remarkable enough. Their academic or athletic achievements were the only reason they had a file after all. Maybe a newspaper article here and there, but nothing more than that. He threw the Vorhees file on the side, where it landed on top of the previous two and almost slipped off to the floor. He picked up the second to last file with the name Perkins written on its tag.  
  
‘Please be interesting.’ Harry whispered to it and laid it in front of him. As he moved his hand to open it, he stopped and looked at the other end of the table once more. Only this time he was surprised to find Malfoy already looking at him. ‘What?’ asked Harry with an aggravated voice.  
  
‘Just making sure you’re doing what you’re supposed to.’ Malfoy replied and hastily looked back down at his files. He was already on his last one.  
  
Harry opened the sand-coloured folder and started skimming through it. _‘A student of the Ravenclaw house … born in 1954 … first in school to solve ... puzzle … Slughorn gave … five years prior … on her second year ...’_ he turned to the next page after realising it was filled with content proving just how smart that Chiara Perkins was. And it suddenly became interesting.   
  
A missing person flyer in such a terrible state with both the picture and the letters heavily distorted. An article ripped from a newspaper that resembled closely the daily prophet with a moving frame of the girl, next to which an unexpected text unfolded.   
  
**‘Hogwarts Student Never To Be Seen Again.’** was the bolded title. _‘Chiara Perkins … of the Ravenclaw house … on her seventh year … Aurors along with the school staff … extensive research … no trace left behind … family devastated … Headmaster Dumbledore to blame?’_   
  
Harry looked at the picture closely. He couldn’t make out most of her features, but he could see her eyes were filled with all sorts of emotions that if revealed would most probably justify her frowned frame. Her hands were wrapped around a book so tightly, yet gently as if she was a little girl holding her doll.   
  
‘I think I found something.’ Harry murmured without looking up and pushed his glasses back up his nose, annoyed by the fact that they consistently refused to defy gravity.   
Draco paced over him in disbelief, pushed Harry back so that he could see and his eyebrows didn’t take long to rise.  
  
‘Of course, I go through all of the boring stuff and you get to find something worth my time.’ Malfoy mumbled. Harry ignored the oblivious comment of his and brought the focus back on the important part.  
  
‘There is a file I haven’t checked yet, but I think that Perkins is the one we are looking for.’  
  
‘And what do we have to go on?’ Malfoy asked and pulled the article closer to his face.  
  
‘Nothing really. Maybe that book she’s holding?’ Harry waited for Malfoy to go through the file himself as if he was some high-end detective and only then got a response.  
  
‘It’s probably the book.’ said Malfoy and Harry loudly breathed through his nose. Draco took off without any warning and started running around the library with a frantic and confused Harry trying to keep up behind him.   
  
‘Do you even know where to look for it?’ Harry panted   
  
‘Of course, I do.’ Draco replied effortlessly and took a couple more turns before stopping in the middle of an aisle. ‘It’s called _“Over the Black Sun”_ I don’t suppose you’ve read it.’   
  
‘Keep it up and see what happens.’ Harry said, hoping he’d give him the opportunity to fulfil his promise. With the side of his eye spotted a smirk on Malfoy’s lips as he looked at the books. ‘Enjoying yourself?’   
  
‘Immensely.’ Draco replied and Harry scoffed loudly, ‘Suck it up and start looking. I want to get out of here as soon as possible.’  
  
‘Since you know so much, how come you don’t know exactly where the book is?’  
  
‘If I remembered the placement of every book I’ve read, I might as well replace Madam Pince.’  
  
  
‘Found it … or them.’ Harry proudly exclaimed a few seconds later, his stomach sinking in disappointment when he saw that more than one book was sharing the title and cover. ‘How will we know which one to use?’   
  
‘If she owned the book and then somehow ended up donated here, I suppose it would be annotated. The year of publication could be useful too.’ said Draco who walked up next to Harry.   
  
Malfoy stretched his body through the small space between Harry’s torso and the bookshelf to grab a few books. Harry forgot to breathe for a second and only did so after the Slytherin had moved away again. A lingering smell of expensive perfume and surprisingly, a hint of smoke numbed his senses for a second, rendering him unable to move for that time frame. He shook his head softly, pulled his robe up to his nose and took a sniff of the fabric to disintegrate the scent.   
  
He grabbed the remainder of the books from the shelf and started recklessly going through them, checking the front and back, and shuffling through the pages, a process that imitated terribly his detention from only a few hours back. He was almost through the fifth book when Malfoy announced his find.  
  
‘I was right once again!’ he chuckled, praising himself for his intelligence, ‘Her name is written in the front page, made it very easy.’ Malfoy spotted a curving corner on a page towards the second third of the book and didn’t bother looking through the rest of the pages. He just flipped to that page. Harry tried to grab the book from him, but he held on tight. They noticed underlining under scattered and seemingly random words.   
  
‘Want, clock, start to, the, I?’ Harry read them in the order they were written and then, as if a lightbulb flashed above their heads, they figured it out at the same time.  
  
‘I WANT TO START THE CLOCK!’ they both yelled, each boy thinking they would overshadow the other.   
  
A clinking sound came from the front to the library, and without any thought, the ran towards it, to find a silver key in front of the library door. Malfoy forestalled Harry, grabbed the key and shoved it in the door’s keyhole. An action he immediately regretted after turning the key, in an attempt to unlock the door.   
  
The moment the key had been twisted to the right, a glowing line of blue light stretched from the right and the left side of the lock, parallel to the floor, circled the four walls of the library and finally expanded upwards and downwards, covering their entire surroundings and shining so bright that staring directly to it, could potentially blind a person.   
  
Harry and Draco covered their faces with their arms and hesitantly lowered them when they felt confident the light had disappeared. They looked at each other but didn’t know what to say. Neither knew what had happened and the shock had left them speechless. The silent but very prominent pressure about who would be the one to muster the courage and speak the first words was lifted from their shoulders when a third voice took the lead.  
  
_‘Took you long enough.’_


	5. Room Within A Room

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The boys quickly find out why their trapped, and upon doing so wish they had never bothered to go back in there in the first place.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is a little shorter than usual. But I hope you enjoy it. Please check the end notes if you plan on reading the next chapter after that one!

The voice coming behind them was soft, low -almost seductive-, yet they were still frightened to their core and instinctively drew their wands. They both turned around to see the apparition of a girl whose colours had almost completely faded out. Her hair was long and black, reaching her waist, straight and a little untamed like weeds in a forgotten garden. Her skin was pale, wildly contradicting her hair, but one could link that observation to her washed-out appearance. A pair of rectangular glasses rested on her nose and drew attention to her equally dark eyes. Her crooked smile indicated nothing good.  
  
‘How about a hello? Perhaps a good evening?’ she said sarcastically after neither the Gryffindor nor the Slytherin seemed able to form a phrase.  
  
‘Who- Who are you?’ Malfoy struggled, but eventually spoke.  
  
‘That’s a bit rude, don’t you think?’ she asked though her question was left unanswered, ‘And I thought of you as the smart one.’ she mumbled ‘I’ve been here the whole time. Don’t you recognise me?’ she walked towards them but made absolutely no sound.  
  
‘You’re not… Are you?’ Harry went back and forth.  
  
‘That’s exactly right, Potter. Now let’s help Mr Malfoy, over here. My name is Chiara Perkins.’  
  
‘You know our names?’ Harry asked  
  
‘Well I just told you them, didn’t I?’ she chuckled, ‘I am so happy you went through with it, I haven’t had any fun since I made this thing, and honestly I started doubting you.’  
  
Harry and Draco started lowering their wands cautiously after realising they had no real power over the mere ghost of a person. They looked at each other confused, and then looked back at her.  
  
‘You’re a ghost?’ Harry asked and the girl nodded, ‘Then how come we’ve never run into you before? We know all the ghosts that live in the castle.’  
  
‘So, you missed one, it’s fine. No grudges!’ she replied, suspiciously happy.  
  
‘If you’ve been here the whole time we couldn’t have missed you. That makes no sense!’ Malfoy spoke for the first time and was already mad.  
  
‘I mean, I could explain to you how and why et cetera, but you’d be bored out of your minds I’m sure.’  
  
‘I honestly do not have the energy to deal with either of you,’ Malfoy announced ‘I’m leaving.’ he turned around and went for the door with no one actively stopping him. When the familiar unlocking ‘click’ came from the lock, after everything they had to go through, his relief was obvious, but only short-lived. Right when a limb of his tried to surpass the doorframe a short, buzzing sound was heard and Malfoy bolted his arm back while leaving a painful gasp. 

‘How silly of me,’ Chiara smiled mockingly ‘I forgot to tell you, you can’t leave.’

‘What?’ Draco yelled exasperated, ‘Why not? We solved your stupid puzzles what else could you possibly want?’ 

‘You thought _that_ was the puzzle?’ the girl asked and laughed ‘No, no; that was barely your sad attempts at unlocking my room.’ 

‘Your room?’ Harry asked, ‘Do you mean the library?’ 

‘In a way,’ she floated on the top of a bookshelf and started walking on it, ‘It’s a room within a room kind of thing.’ 

‘A room within a room?’ Harry mumbled, struggling to make sense.

‘You don’t know what that is?’ she asked and sat on the shelf she was striding on.

‘Of course he doesn’t.’ Malfoy murmured loudly enough for her to hear.

‘I wasn’t talking to you.’ Chiara’s tone suddenly came off as grim, ‘I was speaking...to Harry.’ 

Harry and Draco both felt the sudden energy shift and their eyes betrayed their confusion. The Gryffindor didn’t reply and just stood still, struggling to keep looking at the newly discovered ghost in the eyes.

‘You’re being rude, Harry.’ she complained ‘But I’m not surprised. You’re both like your dads. Annoyingly rude and dumber than you get credit for.’

Her words inflicted anger in them, and each struggled to find the words to better defend their fathers. 

‘Watch your mouth!’ Malfoy exclaimed

‘You didn’t even know my father.’ said Harry almost at the same time. 

‘Aw. Did I hurt your feelings?’ she pouted jokingly and pretended to fall from the shelf as she laughed loudly. ‘I knew both Lucius and James. The only difference is that _James_ didn’t know _me_.’ Chiara picked up a book and shuffled through the pages, ‘Lucius on the other hand,’ she glared at Malfoy ‘Not only knew me but made my days in Hogwarts miserable.’ Draco’s expression softened, not enough for the apparition to take notice but enough for Harry to spot the difference.

‘He’s never even mentioned your name before.’ Draco replied.

‘Why would he? Are you planning on mentioning Granger, or Weasley or Potter, even, to your kids?’ she cocked an eyebrow and smirked.

‘I would rather bind my tongue than speak their names to my family.’ Malfoy replied and Harry felt a shortness of breath, inexplicable and quite coincidental with Malfoy’s words, but paid no more attention to it. 

‘There’s your answer then.’ Chiara said calmly ‘Now let us explain to Mr Potter here, what a room within a room is.’ She jumped down elegantly and paced closer to them, focusing mainly on Harry, ‘A room within a room is, essentially, a space with a charm. That charm keeps the people within it separate from the people outside of it. You can interact with the room and see everyone outside of it, without actually making an impact.’ the semi-translucent girl noticed the lack of understanding in Harry’s eyes and decided to elaborate, ‘For example, I can knock the shelves over, but it will only affect us three. Should anyone walk into the library, they would have no knowledge of our presence and no shelves will be knocked over. Did I simplify it enough?’

‘So, it’s like a duplicate of the room _inside_ the room?’ Harry asked and prayed he had grasped the concept correctly

‘More or less.’

‘Well that explains why you could see us and we couldn’t. Or how you disappeared and no one could find you. You died in here?’ his mind started rapidly putting the pieces together.

‘I got trapped. Then I died.’ she replied and walked away looking for another book to pick up.

‘Trapped?’ Harry asked loudly, grasping the attention of both Malfoy and Perkins, ‘So you don’t know how to get us out of here?’

‘I got you in here, what makes you think that I’d make it so easy for you to leave?’ she chuckled once again.

‘Wait, I’m confused. What do you mea-’

‘How about you both zip it, let me tell you a story and see if you have any questions left then?’ she cut off Harry with a prominent arrogance in her voice. Harry looked at Draco and he looked back at him. Chiara took their silence as a confirmation to her question and began. ‘Great! I’ve been waiting a long time to tell that story. So, once upon a time, there was a girl named Chiara Perkins. A quiet student who never bothered _anyone_ , yet everyone bothered _her,_ ’ she glared at Draco as she emphasized her last word ‘Especially by an annoying, stupid, arrogant, rich, manipulative, racist guy just one year older than her, named Lucius Malfoy.’ Harry found it unsettling that should she stop her description at the word _guy_ , the first person that would pop in his head would be Draco.   
‘Lucius found joy in belittling and embarrassing that girl every chance he got. But he had a way of getting away with everything; he and everybody else who decided it would be fun to joke on a kid who sat alone and read her books in peace, never giving them a reason to do such things. And then Chiara had no other choice but hide at the place she had the most chances of surviving until the end of the term.’ she stopped, floated higher up and twirled around to motion to the room around her. ‘The library. But as she read and read and read and read, she ran out of things to read. And very cautiously and bravely walked over to the restricted section where she figured out that, perhaps, revenge was more fun than it was given praise for. Then, after spending hours and hours of research she constructed the _perfect_ way to finally get back at everyone!’ 

Harry and Draco looked at each other, sharing a sense of fear induced by the very unstable ghost of a girl who was clearly seeking revenge in them, but they made sure to let her finish. 

‘I created this room. And I was so eager to use it.’ she continued, the excitement in her voice elevating, ‘It was the perfect plan; I could trap whoever I wanted in here and watch the fear in their eyes that drained their souls second by second.’

‘How?’ Harry’s curiosity got the best of him.

‘That’s the best part, Potter! I found several ways to make the experience great for me, and horrible for anyone I chose to be in here. Puzzles of various difficulties and manifestations of their nightmares. Are you familiar with Greek Mythology?’ the boys nodded confused, ‘Let’s just say that Hercules’ labours couldn’t stand a chance to what I have prepared here. I made it so good, in fact, that even I couldn’t escape it!’

You would expect someone who had trapped themselves into their own death wouldn’t be happy about it, yet Chiara Perkins was the example of quite the opposite. She was so engulfed in her self-praise that did not seem to have any second thoughts about condemning herself in such an awful fate.

‘You made a room exclusively to torture my father?’ Draco asked with a tone that implied he was not acknowledging the severity of the situation.

‘Not just your father, Malfoy. Anyone who deserved it.’ the girl replied calmly.

‘And you were the one to judge who deserved it and who didn’t?’ Malfoy asked again.

‘Of course I was- _am_ the judge of that. If I didn’t know who deserved it, _I,_ who had been through so much crap in this school, then who did?’ 

‘Have you ever trapped anyone else here before?’ Harry asked with a strong and dominating voice to fake his confidence. 

‘Except for me, no. I mean, I tried but they wouldn’t bother to solve the puzzle to enter the room. Quite disappointing really. But now I have you two here!’ she smiled ominously.

‘But why would you trap me here? Malfoy, I understand but what did my father ever do to you?’ Harry’s comment about the righteousness of her actions against Malfoy made the Slytherin glare at him intensely, but he ignored it.

‘First of all, let’s get something clear. I did not pick you because of your fathers. You just happen to be just like them. Second of all James Potter was not the saint you deem him to be, Harry. I know what he and his friends did to Severus and he could be quite poisonous to other people as well. But on the topic of you two,’ she paused and looked at them with a lower and repellent look, ‘I don’t have to spend much time over Malfoy. Draco you are just like your father, for the most part, thanks for making it easier for me to hate you. And you Harry; I hate it when people get so much praise without deserving it. Everybody is talking about “ _The Chosen One_ ” so much that I want to throw myself off a tower. And I’m dead.’ Malfoy chuckled and it caught him by surprise that Perkins didn’t attempt to give him a hard time for it, ‘People like you overshadow others who are more deserving of the fame and the glory. What did you do? You didn’t die when you were a baby. Big deal. You didn’t beat _You-Know-Who_ , you just got lucky. And now all that attention since the day you first came to Hogwarts has gotten into your head.’

Harry didn’t say anything. It wasn’t the first time this thought had crossed his mind, but it was the first time he heard it outside of his head. It also struck him as odd that a dead person couldn’t speak of Voldemort’s name. Draco didn’t talk either, surprisingly, and despite Harry expecting to see an ironic smile on his face, when he looked at Malfoy he had a blank, emotionless face tilted towards the floor.

‘So how are we getting out of here?’ Harry asked after a brief moment of silence.  
  
‘Right, of course,’ Chiara was suddenly reminded of the original purpose of her rant, ‘My intention is that you don’t; but I like to play fair, an option that _I_ was never given,’ she gave another infuriated look to Malfoy, who willingly returned the favour. ‘Well, it’s been four minutes since you started the clock, that leaves you with… six minutes to solve the first riddle.’

‘We had a _time limit_?’ Malfoy squealed and his eyes widened.

‘Well of course. Otherwise, it wouldn’t be interesting.’ she smiled maliciously and pushed her glasses back. 

‘What happens when the time runs out?’ Harry asked, taking rapid breaths filled with anxiety.

‘There’s only one way to find out.’ she smiled.

‘You haven’t even given us the riddle yet!’ Malfoy said, his level of fear matching Harry’s.

‘You didn’t ask me to. Anyway, since we started with a clock I feel this is appropriate; you measure its life by hours and it serves you by expiring. Quick when thin and slow when big. When you _find_ it a bell will ring and you’ll move on the next part.’

Harry and Draco panicked. Each of them murmuring to themselves, mostly repeating the words that came from Perkins, but coming up with nothing. The more time that passed by without any progress, the stronger Harry’s heartbeat pounded in his ears. 

Chiara’s unstoppable blabbering wasn’t being useful either. Every few seconds she flew from one boy to another, nagging them with questions like _‘Nothing yet?’_ , _‘Having a hard time?’_ and every other variation that would remind them about their inability to find the answer. 

‘Will you stop speaking? I need to focus unless I want to spend eternity with you!’ Draco shouted at her, but she didn’t even flinch. Harry couldn’t comprehend why he would say stuff like that to a ghost in a murderous rage, in a room specifically designed to keep them inside, but he brushed that thought away almost as soon as it crossed his mind and went back to the riddle.

‘Aw, well that’s too bad because you most probably will.’ the ghost replied without ever dropping her smile.  
  
‘Really sorry to interrupt your marital problems there, really _really_ sorry,’ Harry interrupted snarkily, making both heads turn to him, ‘But how much time do we have left?’  
  
‘Three minutes and thirty seconds, now twenty-nine, twenty-eight, twenty sev-’

‘I got it, thanks.’ Harry interrupted her again and hurried up to Draco, ‘Anything?’  
  
‘Do you honestly believe that had I solved it, I would have waited for you to ask me about it to say it? We are about to _die_!’  
  
‘We’re not gonna die!’ Harry didn’t believe a word he said. Despite hating himself for that, he was counting on Draco to solve it and since he seemed to have given up, their hopes were running thinner by the second.  
  
‘Potter’s right,’ the boys, who had forgotten about her existence for a few moments, jolted their heads to look at the apparition, ‘If you were to die right away, it wouldn’t be any fun. For me at least.’  
  
Harry sighed but not in relief, rather in disappointment. It would be ironic if he escaped Voldemort so many times but died in the library because a twisted ghost girl wouldn’t let him out.  
  
‘Can you at least give us a hint?’ pleaded Harry  
  
‘Please, it’s not even that difficult.’ she replied enjoying the fact that she could constantly undermine them.  
  
‘You are so convinced we won’t make it out anyway, so why not help us?’ he tried again,  
  
‘Because I don’t want to.’  
  
Draco left out a frustrated grunt and ran his hand through his hair; Harry considered looking it up in a book but he didn’t even know _what_ to look up. There were only two minutes left before Harry, through the relentless pestering of the ghost and Malfoy’s sighs and murmurs of disappointment, managed to figure it out.  
  
‘A candle,’ he whispered, ‘A candle! It melts faster when it’s thin and- and slower when it’s thick. And it was used to measure time!’ a sense of joy and relief passed through him.  
  
‘A candle?’ Malfoy asked as he thought it through, then looked at Chiara ‘Did he figure it out?’  
  
‘When you find it, a bell will sound.’ she replied apathetically, and Harry’s enthusiasm quickly burnt out.  
  
‘Did you hear a bell ring, Potter?’ Malfoy asked deridedly.  
  
‘Are you seriously going to keep this up? Under these circumstances?’ Harry was close to throwing a fit.  
  
‘It may be the last time I get to do it, so yes.’  
  
‘How about you pay more attention to solving these...puzzle...things, so that we can leave, instead of planning how you want to spend your _“last day”?_ ’ his voice got louder with every word.  
  
‘How about you don’t tell me what to do?’ Malfoy walked closer to him.  
  
‘Or what? You’ll kill me? Just wait a bit, it’s on schedule!’  
  
‘Down to _one_ minute boys.’ the apparrition calmly stated between their yelling.  
  
‘We can’t figure it out.’ Harry told her and raised his arms in the air, next to his head.  
  
‘Shut up, maybe I’ll think of something.’ Draco shoved him.  
  
‘Like all of the _zero_ things you’ve came up with this far?’  
  
‘I solved almost everything else tonight!’  
  
‘Yes, you’re right. You deserve every credit for our current situation. Nicely done, indeed.’  
  
‘Thirty seconds.’ Chiara interrupted again, only this time followed silence.  
  
Harry’s stomach was turning uncontrollably. His whole body heated up, his face burned as if he was running a very high fever; somehow not knowing what was about to happen made the waiting all the more unbearable. They looked at each other for a second, then looked away again, and continued to wait in quiet.  
  
‘Times up!’ the unnecessarily enthusiastic ghost announced, ‘Do you want the answer or the consequences first?’ she asked but gave them no time to answer, even though niether of them was going to, ‘Eh, nevermind. I’ll give you the answer first, I don’t want your whines ruining it.’ she hovered somewhere in the library and returned holding a recently blown out candle with a line of gray smoke marking her trail.  
  
‘I said candle!’ Harry protested,  
  
‘I specifically asked to _find_ it. Not just say it, dear.’ Chiara replied with a smirk. Harry realised she knew exactly what she was doing.  
  
‘How is that fair play?’ he yelled at her.  
  
‘It is more than fair.’ her tone suddenly became passive-aggressive and her smile turned into a straight face, ‘I told you exactly what you had to do. You just decided to understand a fraction of it.’ Harry struggled to let out a proper face and stumbled through his words of frustration, so she decided to take the lead again, ‘Want to hear about the consequence? I can’t wait to see your faces when I tell you!’  
  
‘You’re really not going to count this because I didn’t physically bring you the candle?’  
  
‘Yes. Now on the topic of aftermath,’ Harry grunted loudly and clenched his fists to hold himself back from speaking, ‘What you have to do in order to go forward, and _only_ because you didn’t solve the riddle no matter _what_ Potter says, is pretty simple,’ she turned to look at Malfoy ‘Break his leg.’  
  
They both thought they misheard. They stared at her for a couple of seconds and then yelled _‘What?’_ in unison.  
  
‘I need you, Potter, to break one of his legs. I don’t care which one.’ Harry looked at a terrified-to-the-point-of-muteness Malfoy.  
  
‘Why would I do that?’ the Gryffindor’s yelling, almost sounded like a cry.  
  
‘Because if you don’t I’ll break both of them.’  
  
‘What?’ Malfoy’s voice trembled  
  
‘Can you not hear me, boys? I thought I was speaking clearly.’ she mocked them ‘Anyway, better hurry up before you run out of time. Oh, and no magic involved, otherwise, I will not count it.’  
  
‘We have a time limit again?’ Harry couldn’t stop yelling; his pulse was higher than ever and his limbs felt numb.  
  
‘You always have a time limit. In fact, you have exactly… eight minutes and forty-three seconds. Forty-two, forty-one…’  
  
Harry looked at Malfoy and he was already looking at him, petrified. For the first time since he met him, he did not want to hurt Draco, yet it seemed they had no choice this time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you plan on reading the next chapter (Chapter number 6), I need to inform you that it will become graphic. I will make sure to include more specific warnings when I post it as well. Feel free to skip it, if you think it's too much for you. Also sorry for the huge-ass Chiara talking parts lol. Thanks for reading! ily all.


	6. Everything Breaks

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Harry is being forced to break Draco's leg but the suffering doesn't end there for Malfoy. Harry finds a way to do things in secret but that forces Malfoy to endure the ghost's wrath on his own, and without a voice. 
> 
> TW: Mentions of blood, su!cide, k!lling and violence.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This took so long I'm so sorry. I was stuck for so long and couldn't write for the life of me. I decided to not make it gorey at all, but I'll still put some warnings for anyone who wants to skip these parts anyway. I'll put three asterisks (***) at the beginning and the end of the parts you may want to watch out for. I had no patience to reread it (it's 17 pages long in the doc lmao), so I only made some basic corrections, therefore I apologise in advance for any mistakes. Anyway thanks for the patience, this chapter ended up being 10k words long, so don't feel pressured to read it all at once! I hope you enjoy reading this :D

Harry looked at Draco and waited for him to say something like he usually did. He expected vigorous and loud objections, but there were none of the sorts. He looked terrified. But they didn’t have much time nor much of a choice. One of them had to figure something out and quickly. Harry walked over to Draco and put his hand on the other’s arm, but Malfoy nudged it away. Harry pulled his hand back and looked down, unsure of what was the right thing to say at that moment.  
  
‘Any ideas?’ he managed to mumble,   
  
‘No, Potter. No ideas. You just need to do what she said.’ Malfoy, who was also looking at the floor, replied emotionless.    
  
‘You want me to break your leg?’ Harry asked, confused.   
  
‘I don’t want you to do it, dimwit. But from the choices given, I’d think that’s the best one.’ he said and cleared his throat, probably choking back a whimper.   
  
‘Maybe we can come up with something.’ Harry tried to give him a sense of hope but failed.   
  
‘We can not, and there is no need. You can’t always find a plan to get out of impossible situations, and that’s a reality you need to come to terms with. I’ve done that a long time ago, and it’s about time you did too.’ Draco’s words were as pessimistic as ever.   
  
‘Stop whining. There must be something we haven’t thought about.’ Harry insisted.   
  
‘Listen to me, Potter,’ Draco mumbled in anger after he grabbed him by the shoulders and glared straight into his eyes, ‘I could not care less about your saviour complex. I either get one leg broken by you or two by that psychopath, and I would much rather get away with it with as less damage as possible.’ He paused and let Harry go, ‘Who knows what else she has planned for later? So unless you’re figuring out a plan to break my leg painlessly, I do not need any other help from you.’ 

Harry stood in silence. He contemplated whether he should take the time to find an alternative or not. If he failed at that, there would be no way to do what he had to mercifully. Draco was dramatic on his own. In the Third Year, he almost got Buckbeak killed because of a scratch, so breaking his leg? That should have been harder to debate, making the job easier for Harry. He tried to find a reason to convince Malfoy not to go through with this, but it all came back to Harry, not wanting to do it. Chiara served as a constant reminder of their time running out, and though he knew he had no time to waste, there were zero ways he could think of that would make this punishment less cruel. 

‘Mr. Potter over here doesn’t seem ready,’ the ghost laughed and flew next to Malfoy, ‘I can’t wait to break you!’ she told him.

‘Can you just shut it?’ Malfoy sighed.

‘Careful now. I can make it even worse for both of you. Remember that  _ I _ make the rules here.’ Her words made Malfoy scoff, and Harry’s anxiety levels elevate. ‘It’s a shame you’ll die tonight, though. I was really curious to see how that letter of yours was going to end.’ Both Harry and Draco turned their heads to face her, Malfoy’s eyes full of terror but Harry’s full of curiosity. 

‘You read my letter?’ Draco asked in anger.

‘Not just this one. Every single one you’ve written, and let me tell you, I’m surprised you’re still here. I thought that either they would have killed you by now, or you would have killed yourself.’ Her terrifying amusement in her last sentence was another sign to show Harry what kind of thing they were dealing with.

‘What is she talking about?’ Harry asked without thinking. 

‘Nothing, she is trying to distract you. Please tell me you thought of something.’ Malfoy was clearly starting to panic, and the Gryffindor knew he had to act smart. He was now sure that whatever was in that parchment could be useful, but it wouldn’t matter if they didn’t make it out.

He looked around and tried to think of something conveniently placed somewhere that would serve him just right, but of course, there was nothing to find. The thought of he himself breaking Draco’s leg was hair-rising at its best. Therefore a mean to execute the plan, other than magic, had to be found. 

‘One minute and thirty seconds, Potter. But really, take your time. As I said before, it would be my pleasure to do it myself.’ She kept rumbling about her sadistic tendencies once more, and it seemed that Harry probably worked best under pressure, given that it was then when the idea hit him. He strode quickly next to Malfoy to tell him the plan.

‘I need you to listen and to not interrupt me until I’m done,’ Harry said and left no room for Malfoy to interfere. ‘I can not…  _ break  _ your leg myself,’ Draco almost spoke in protest, but Harry caught up, ‘ _ But  _ I can do something else, and it’s the only way I agree to do it, so either we do it that way, or I let her take care of you.’ His tone was more menacing than he intended, but judging by the stunt Malfoy, it was working, so he didn’t hold back. ‘I will push a bookcase on you-’

‘A what?’ he whispered back rather loudly, ‘You don’t need to kill me. You just have to break my leg!’

‘I know!’ Harry replied with the same attitude, ‘I will push it, and you will have enough time to judge how much farther you must run for it just to get your leg.’

‘I don’t think it will work.’ 

‘Fine then. I am all out of ideas, but Perkins seems to have a number of them, so I’ll let her take care of it. What about that?’ 

‘Fifty seconds, boys!’ the ghostly voice got more excited every time. Draco realised that they genuinely were out of options, and in all fairness, Harry’s idea was the least brutal one.

‘Okay.’ he finally sighed. 

‘Run to the front of the first bookcase,’ Harry said.  _ ‘While you still can,’  _ he thought but judged it was better left unsaid. Malfoy obliged, and Harry followed right after him.

‘Finally!’ The girl floating a little farther behind, Harry laughed.

‘You’ll have to be the judge of the distance. I don’t have time to help you there.’ Harry yelled and hesitantly touched the shelves he was about to use as a weapon.

‘I have,’ Malfoy’s trembling breath was barely audible yet, somehow, Harry noticed. ‘Now be quick about it!’ 

Harry’s stomach felt sick; he couldn’t even begin to imagine what the boy on the other side must have been feeling. And he didn’t even have the time to consider everyone’s emotions either. 

‘Thirty seconds.’

***  
He leaned against the cold wood and gripped on a shelf. He quietly let out a long breath and started pushing. He feared that Malfoy would run away entirely and their efforts wouldn’t mean anything, but he had no other option other than to blindly trust a person he never once trusted in his life. At least he could say that he tried. 

The bookcase felt heavy at first, but after one strong push, it was suddenly weightless. Harry’s job was done. He ran from the side to make sure everything went according to plan, but he regretted it the moment he did it. Malfoy ran backwards so hastily that he slipped on the dusty floor, landing on his back. Harry held his breath as both the time and the bookcase lowered. Malfoy tried to push his body further back with his hands, but he didn’t have much time to cover a significant distance. Both Harry and Draco looked away split seconds before the disaster, unable to notice Chiara’s persistent look at the event, not even flinching. 

Harry wasn’t sure what he heard first; the crash or the cries of pain, but both were equally loud to make him inadvertently wince. The screams made the task of turning around feel impossible to Harry, since it was his fault, but he had to assess the situation quickly and save whatever could be saved at that moment.

‘Shit… Fuck…’ Malfoy wept as he tried to push the piece of furniture that kept crashing his leg. 

At first sight, Harry saw that at least his left leg was unscathed. Malfoy probably managed to pull it back before it, too, was totalled. He ran towards him and tried to push the shelves away as painlessly as possible, a task that he abandoned almost immediately solely because of fear of causing more harm than good. He pretended not to see the tears striking Draco’s face and looked at his leg, only half of which was visible since the rest was hidden under the fallen bookcase.

‘Are you okay?’ Harry asked.

‘What do you think?  _ Ah _ !’ Draco shut his eyes and grabbed with both hands the last visible part of his, a bit lower his knee.

‘I need to pull this off; it might hurt.’ He tried to keep a calm voice over Malfoy’s trembling one.

‘It can’t hurt any more than it already did, so just be done with it.’ 

‘I’ll try to lift it. Do you think you’ll be able to bring your leg back?’

Malfoy just shrugged his shoulders and sniffled his nose in response. Harry wedged his fingers under the shelves. When he was about to push the whole bookcase up, despite the fact that all of the books had fallen on the floor, he realised that it was much harder to lift it up instead of pushing it onto someone like he did before. Gravity had now officially made it into Harry’s blacklist.

‘It’s really heavy. You’ll have to be fast unless you want your leg crushed twice.’ 

‘That would be so fun.’ The ghost cynically made her way into the conversation again, but neither of them bothered with her. Harry tightened his grip and took a deep breath.

‘I’ll count to three.’ He gave him another warning. Guilt was feeling his head about what he did even though he knew that was the only choice, and Malfoy was practically begging him to do it. Still, it overwhelmed him. ‘One… Two…  _ Three _ .’ he struggled through the last word, yet he managed to lift it high enough for Draco to pull his broken leg out and that immediately filled Harry with relief. He almost broke his own fingers when he let the bookcase fall back down, but he didn’t and he was tremendously grateful for that. 

He looked at the Slytherin’s leg and was glad that there was nothing poking out of it and it was still holding its shape. Draco attempted to pull himself up by grabbing onto a desk but he was too shaky and weak to do that. Harry went over to him and put the other’s arm around him, and lifted him up, to sit him down on the bench. Draco couldn’t even put the slightest of pressure on it without groaning loudly.   
***

‘Satisfied?’ Harry asked, his shock and concern manifesting into fury.

‘Eh.’ she replied in the cruellest way possible.

‘What do you mean “ _ Eh” _ ?’ Draco shouted back while holding tightly onto his leg, ‘He broke my fucking leg, isn’t that what you wanted?’ 

Harry felt glad that Malfoy didn’t continue his rant with a venomous characterisation like he usually did when talking to someone because even though he would probably be right to do so, they were still at her mercy.

‘I did, but I wanted… I don’t know,  _ more _ .’ her tone remained unchanged.

‘More?’ Draco whispered aggressively. 

‘Maybe a bone or some blood. I’m barely convinced that your leg is broken. I anticipated a fight, which... didn’t happen disappointingly, but there’s still time to change that.’ She smiled viciously, ‘Should we go on then?’

‘How am I supposed to-’

‘I only asked to be polite.’ she cut Draco off, but his sobs still sounded softly in the background. The irony of her words was apparent to everyone but her. ‘Now, it’s time for the second part, so pay attention!’ She demanded, ‘My name’s one truth and your fears’ opposite times eighty-three. Find the number two of the truth and track it down its folded roots. You have four minutes starting now.’

Harry had never felt more confused than he did now. Even Draco took a break from his moanings and relied only on a few sniffles of his nose in an attempt to figure it out. The boys knew not to waste any time with questions this time around, for the consequences were unpredictable and truly horrid. Draco looked up at the apparition after a few seconds of hard concentration.

‘Where do you come from, exactly?’ he asked her.

‘What are you doing?’ Harry asked frantic, trying to fit in his mind if the pain had caused Draco’s mind to forget everything that had happened barely minutes ago. He ignored him.

‘That seems irrelevant, but I’ll play along,’ she answered gleefully, ‘My family comes from Ireland but I was born in Leeds. Where are  _ you _ from?’ 

‘Excellent.’ Draco murmured and after blatantly ignoring her question, he turned to Harry. ‘You need to find a book called Dark Hopes. It’s probably in the Muggle section since I haven’t read it.’ Harry stood in confusion for a moment.

‘How did you jump to that conclusion?’ He asked Malfoy.

‘The truth of her name must be the meaning behind it. The Irish Chiara stands for dark but that name in every other aspect is associated with light so that must be the second truth you must look for. And the opposite of fear is hope, probably. Now  _ go _ !’ He shook in his seat since that was the most of a fit that he could throw. 

‘Why do you know so much about names?’ Harry asked, completely detached from the reality of time pressure followed by tragedies.

‘Do you really have to know that  _ now _ ?’ 

‘Right, okay.’ Harry got out of his head and started looking around for the Muggle section.

‘Aisle four!’ Malfoy yelled frustrated.

‘I know!’ He did not.

The Muggle section was a pure mess. Nothing was in alphabetical order, or any kind of order at all. 

‘Let me remind you, you can not use a spell to find it, I’ll consider it cheating.’ The ghost said snarkily, ‘Also, three minutes left precisely.’

Harry’s legs felt numb at the sight of chaos in front of him. There was a small chance of finishing the riddle on time, and he was assured that he wouldn’t fall on that chance. He was also almost certain that the next consequence would fall upon him, and would be worse than the previous one. Maybe it wasn’t going to be for him and maybe it wasn’t worse than the previous one but that wasn’t a risk he was willing to take.

He threw every book he saw and wasn’t it on the ground, at first to avoid confusion and then mostly out of frustration. This was very obviously a two-person job, and then it became apparent why she wanted Malfoy temporarily immobile. He would have found it in seconds.

‘Two minutes, love.’ She updated him.

‘What are you doing back there, Potter?’ Malfoy asked irritated.

‘I’m  _ trying _ !’ His voice almost cracked. Then his eyes finally landed on it; it stood unscathed next to him, squeezed in between a few insignificant books on a shelf higher than his head, as if it was looking down at him; mocking him for taking him so long to spot it at such an obvious place. He grabbed the book. ‘I found it!’ He yelled.

‘Page eighty-three and look for mentions of light. The second meaning. And you better do it fast.’ The Slytherin was smarter than him even when he was in such terrible pain, though Draco seemed to have forgotten about his leg.

Harry shuffled carelessly through it and almost ripped the page when he reached it, by grabbing it so hard. It had a quote in there but the credits were marked off with black ink. Harry read the quote to himself.

**_“_ ** **_There are darknesses in life and there are lights, and you are one of the lights, the light of all lights.”_ **

Finally, that’s something he could solve on his own. It was a quote from Dracula. Uncle Vernon had fallen asleep on the couch one evening and had forgotten the TV on. Harry’s insomnia had kept him awake that night as well. When he left his room to take a glass of water, he noticed the movie playing and sat down on the floor to watch it, in hopes that Mr Dursley wouldn’t suddenly awake due to his own snoring. One of the few movies Harry watched until the end, and that quote happened to be in there.

He remembered throwing that book on the floor somewhere. He fell to his knees and began the process of grabbing and throwing books all over again. He had no idea what was happening around him. He couldn’t hear Malfoy’s whining or Chiara’s chuckles, he didn’t know how much time he had left, the only thing he cared about was the book.

It was the only one with a black cover, yet he could not find it amongst the masses of colour scattered on the floor. It wasn’t under the red hardcover or the blue leather and though he went through so many books it felt as if the books were increasing instead of decreasing. His breathing felt harder to maintain and his heartbeat so loud he could feel it on his skin. Every sound was heavily muffled and Malfoy’s voice hysterically shouting at him to  _ “Hurry up” _ because  _ “There was no time”  _ to the point where it felt like he was listening to him from the bottom of a pool. He couldn’t make out the words  _ “Thirty seconds” _ coming from the maniac’s mouth and therefore couldn’t understand how overwhelmingly victorious it felt when he shouted -in the remaining two seconds-  _ “I found it!”  _ while holding the book higher from his head, his finger shoved between a folded and an unfolded page.

‘Huh, look at that.’ the girl mumbled as she picked up the book from the boy’s shaking hand ‘Mr Potter coming through on the last second. To be honest with you I was hoping that you’d fail.’ She paused to take a look at the folded page of the book. ‘But you _ did _ find it and as I said, I play fair.’ She tossed the book behind her and a  _ ‘ding’ _ sounded just like she said it would.

Harry’s eyes watered after the pressure was lifted off his shoulders as if he wanted to cry, but the last thing they needed was another person bursting into tears. At least Draco had a reason to cry.    
Harry felt faint and sick; he could easily drop unconscious if he let himself. The constant anxiety and the knowledge that whatever they did they wouldn’t get out, made consciousness an agonizing state to be in. But with Draco unable to walk, should he give up, even if there was a small chance to survive they would miss it.

He had to find a way out of this and he could not do it alone. But Chiara gave them approximately zero time to do anything else other than what she wanted, so the only way to try to come up with something before reaching a point that they could not physically move at all would be to find a way to hide from her.

Harry shook his head in an attempt to get rid of the awful feelings he was dealing with and ran back to Malfoy, who was sitting on top of the desk he had left him before. He grabbed him by the arm tightly and whispered  _ ‘How are you with non-verbal spells?’  _

‘Fine, I suppose…’ Malfoy whispered back with a confusion portrayed excellently by his widened eyes, furrowed brows and twisted mouth. 

‘Where is your wand?’ 

‘Why are you asking me all these-?’

‘There is no time for explaining just trust me.’ Harry accidentally whispered loudly and looked back to the ghost who was menacingly circling them, as a shark would to its prey, politely requesting to be let in the conversation every now and then. ‘Is it in your pocket?’

‘Yes?’ Malfoy replied hesitantly. Even if he wanted to be incompliant he knew that it was in his best interest to work with Harry rather than against him this time.

‘Great keep it there. I need you to do the Muffliato spell on us so that we can talk more freely. And make sure she doesn’t notice. Got it?’ 

Draco nodded and looked left and right without turning his head. He slowly put his hand in the pocket of his suit.

‘Be quick about it.’ Harry told him and earned an angered look from Malfoy, but he didn’t say a thing. He stared hard at Harry and he started feeling uncomfortable.

‘Playing the silent game boys?’ She said as she landed next to them. Harry ignored her very much proving her point. ‘As much as I love games, I prefer some action going on, in case you haven’t noticed, so knock it off.’ She started getting irritated.

‘How about we play one of the games I propose?’ Harry finally answered after discreetly making a ‘ _ pause _ ’ motion with his hand to Malfoy. ‘It’s a classic game, and you are most definitely going to win it, so why not?’

‘What’s the game?’ She chuckled. 

‘Hide and Seek.’ Said Harry and Malfoy looked as lost as ever, but remained silent once more.

‘Hide and Seek?’ Chiara chuckled, ‘There’s no point in playing it, there’s no place to hide here. And you can’t leave the room. Remember?’

‘It’s exactly what I said then. A game that you’ll definitely win at. No drawbacks for you. So why not let us have some fun before we die?’ 

‘I suppose that’s fair.’ She said after some short amount of thinking, ‘How much time do you need to… hide?’ She said the last word mockingly.

‘How about fifty seconds?’ 

‘I’ll give you sixty, I’m feeling nice.’ Once again, she was oblivious to the irony.

‘Whenever you’re ready.’ Harry smiled and waited for her to turn around and start counting as if they were ten years old. 

He pulled out the Invisibility Cloak that he had folded up and almost forgotten about and covered them both. He took out his wand and performed a successful Muffliato spell on them by whispering. Now they could finally speak freely.

‘How about you let me in your little plan?’ Malfoy grumbled.

‘As long as she can’t see or hear us, we have time to figure something out. I can’t believe how the Hide and Seek thing worked, but even with that I don’t know how long we’ve got until she starts to get irritated.’ He looked at her and understood she hadn’t realised something was going on. She had forty-five seconds to go, ‘It is obvious, there is no pattern to what she is doing. No time pattern, no… puzzle pattern, nothing. She’s making stuff up as she goes and she won’t stop until we die. There is no way to  _ “win” _ this thing.’

‘You can’t be that sure about the pattern. We’ve only been through two riddles so far.’ Malfoy contradicted him.

‘And was it fun for you, Malfoy?’ Harry asked sarcastically, ‘I do not intend to stick around that long to figure out whether she has a pattern or not. You know about that “room within a room” crap, and I need you to tell me everything you remember.’ The ghost had fifteen seconds left by that time.

‘All I know is that despite being easy to make it can very easily trap its maker in. It’s basically a torture hole, she knew very well what she was doing. It can manifest illusions based on whatever the caster or maker in that case, of the Room decides to show and history has shown that almost no one used it for good.’ Malfoy replied sceptically and at that moment the countdown ended.

‘Why hasn’t she used the illusions yet?’ Harry asked.

‘Maybe she has a plan after all. I doubt she doesn’t know about it.’

‘She’s probably saving it for the finale.’ Harry paused and listened at the apparition who was playfully searching for them. They had a few seconds until she realised something was wrong. ‘Do you know how to break out of the Room?’ Draco looked at him as if he was being absolutely ridiculous.

‘No,’ he paused and looked at him annoyed, ‘I only know the process of making one.’

‘Well, I remember reading somewhere that a way of undoing a complicated spell is by doing the process backwards. Any chance that would work?’ Harry asked and hoped he wouldn’t get humiliated again.

‘At this point, I don’t think there’s anything else to try.’ Draco agreed with him surprisingly. ‘I know that in order to make the Room you have to enchant every corner with an incantation of the word “inclausa” starting from the north moving clockwise, and then create a process of entering it.’

‘A process of entering it, like the doorknob thing?’

‘The riddles and the knobs are her addition. It’s more about the order and position of the process. The order in which the books fell, basically.’

‘I don’t remember that. You'll have to do it.’ Harry muttered.

‘I can’t do it!’ Malfoy protested.

‘Why not?’

‘When I told you you need to enchant every corner of the room, I meant  _ every _ corner. Ceiling to floor, wall by wall. I can barely walk.’

Harry stayed still for a little while, thinking. The ghost was raging and knocking things off all over the place, the most terrifying of her they had seen yet. She had found out that they were plotting something but as long as they remained hidden, they were safe. And the realisation had just hit Harry; they couldn’t both stay under the Cloak while reversing the spell. He couldn’t carry Draco across the library. He would have to climb on the shelves and run around, having Malfoy with him would only make the process more difficult. He still needed his information though, while doing everything, but if they broke the spell she would find Harry within seconds and then there would be no turning back. So, Harry had made a decision, and it was time to announce the very bad news to the Slytherin, who for once cooperated with him and was about to regret it. 

The shrieks and fits that the ghost threw were making this harder for Potter to say. It was obvious that between the two of them, she despised Draco the most.  _ “And she’s not entirely wrong about that” _ Harry thought and took a deep breath. 

‘I need your wand.’ He said to the unsuspecting Malfoy and stretched his hand. Draco looked at him confused for one more time that day, but very hesitantly complied. Harry placed it in his back pocket to make sure that Draco wouldn’t be able to reach it if he wanted to. 

‘Why did you-?’

‘I can not carry you with me there and I can not afford for you to break the Muffliato if things get hard.’ He cut him off. Draco paused for a second with his mouth slightly open.

‘What are you saying?’ 

‘I’m saying that I’ll have to leave you here, Malfoy.’ 

‘You are not leaving me out there with that psychopath, Potter!’ He started panicking.

‘Listen to me, if there’s one chance to get out of here, is by doing this. I need your help if we want to succeed, and I am not negotiating that.’ Harry placed his hand on the Cloak.

‘Potter, don’t you fucking dare-’ 

Malfoy tried to change the other boy’s mind but Harry pulled the Cloak off him before he managed to end his sentence. Now neither Draco nor Chiara could see him, but he could see them both. And his feeling of guilt inflated when he looked back at the boy he left behind sitting frozen in fear and waiting for the ghost to see him. 

Harry looked away and carefully walked through the large corridors of the library; the Muffliato silenced his talking but not his walking. 

‘Hide under the desk, and maybe she won’t spot you right away.’ He said to Draco and hoped he did that. ‘I need your help with the books.’ He told him as he reached the point of the library where Malfoy had left them previously, all in order. ‘Where did we find each one?’ He didn’t get an answer. The hysteria in the background was getting ever so distracting. ‘This is not the time to be a brat, Malfoy, it’s our lives!’ Harry shouted so that he could hear him. 

‘That’s why you left me here to die?’ Malfoy replied.

‘Did you have any better ideas? It was either this or nothing.’

After a long pause and a terrifying screech in the back of the room, Malfoy replied, ‘Fine!’ and guided Potter to where they found the books one by one and to reverse order no less, much to Harry’s surprise who struggled to recall where they had left the pile of books in the first place.

But as Harry was putting the last book in its place, he heard the phrase he hoped to delay as much as possible, but only managed to actually do so for no more than a minute.

_ ‘There you are.’ _

__ The ghost had found Draco.

‘Don’t say anything for as long as you can. She can’t find out about the charm!’ Harry yelled and hoped that Draco wouldn’t be stupid enough to answer. 

He couldn’t see what was going on but he could hear everything and it made his stress levels rise higher and higher. What if he didn’t make it? Or what if he did but she killed Malfoy before he could get out? Nothing was unexpected at this point.

He remembered that she made the spell clockwise, so the only way to undo it would be counterclockwise. But did he have to start from the west wall, the south wall or the north wall? Each one was a potential right answer but if he messed it up he would have to start from the top.

If he had to reverse the spell, that would mean to do the opposite of what she did, so since she started north and moved clockwise, he should start south and counterclockwise.

If he had to do the steps backwards in order to reverse it like they originally thought though, then there were two options: if she completed a circle and ended at the north side, he should start from the north and end at the north,  _ but  _ if she started north and ended at the west wall as the last remaining side, he should start from the west and  _ work _ his way to the north. 

‘Okay so it turns out I need your help a little early on,’ he said to Malfoy who surprisingly managed to keep his mouth shut despite having a dead person terrorizing him above his head, ‘From which wall do I start? I… I just want to make sure.’ Harry waited for a bit but apart from Chiara’s screaming, he got no answer. 

‘Where is your friend, Malfoy?’ the ghost was yelling to the petrified Draco. ‘You think you can make a joke out of me, you disgusting creatures?’ 

Harry thought quickly, grabbed a pile of random books and started running towards them; as he got closer he threw the books far away from him in an aisle to create a diversion which miraculously worked. The apparition immediately left Draco and unknowingly flew right through Harry, who felt his whole body shiver and then immediately get reheated. 

‘Speak. Now!’ Harry yelled knowing that she would be back within seconds and probably angrier than before.

‘Have you found her wand?’ he asked as if Harry should have known about that on his own.

‘Her  _ what _ ? Why didn’t you tell me that before?’ He asked angrily.

‘She died in here, it must be somewhere…  _ shit. _ ’ Malfoy whispered the last word and the sudden coldness Harry felt swallowing him whole made any further explanation unnecessary. 

It seemed she had found the source of the sound quicker than expected. Even though he knew she couldn’t see him, Harry stood very still and unconsciously held his breath, and through the semi-translucent body that floated in front of him, he saw Malfoy trembling in fear and grabbing onto the desk behind him for dear life. 

‘So you  _ can _ speak after all.’ Chiara said snarkily, ‘I suppose you are under a spell. But that still doesn’t answer my question as to where Potter is. I don’t know what kind of trick you think you are playing here, but you have nowhere to go. Sooner or later I will find him. And I’ll have you both  _ begging _ me to kill you.’ 

Harry quietly walked away and abandoned Draco with the crazy dead person again. That task seemed impossible. It would have been helpful if he had been warned about that beforehand, but he had no time to waste on whining. Harry figured that it would probably be where she died, and since no one had found her body, it must have still been there. Long story short, find the bones, find the wand. 

He wondered how they haven’t seen a skeleton lying around yet, then he remembered they didn’t get much time to explore. He ran aisle to aisle and looked under every desk and bench until the only place left was the librarian’s desk in the front right corner. It had a covering on the outside, so it would make sense for someone not to notice something hidden there instantly.  
  
Every time he took a step he feared that the spawn of evil might hear him, so he was constantly jolting his head back and forth, which resulted in him feeling nauseated very quickly. When he reached the front part of the desk, Harry stopped and looked at it. If it wasn’t behind it, then there would be no other place to look for it. Yet if it was there, he would have to reach between the bones of an actual dead person’s skeleton to take it. It felt kind of violating for a moment until he heard the crashing sound of what he hoped were books accompanied with Malfoy’s whimpers which only Harry could hear, coming from not that far behind him, where he had left the other two alone.

He squeezed his fingers on his wand and took a couple of faithful steps towards it. 

‘ _ Please, please, please... _ ’ He whispered and walked to the front of the desk. He shut his eyes tightly until he was fully squatting under it. 

***   
As luck would have it, when Harry opened his eyes he was nearly touching a full and well-preserved skeleton folded in a slouching position to fit. Unfortunately for him though, the wand had been placed inside the ribcage, hopefully, and most probably after her death. If he wanted the wand he would have to move the bones, a job that seemed quite difficult to do without making any noise, but doable under the right circumstances. And at that moment, the circumstances were as good as they could get them to be, so Harry had to work with that.

As long as he was hearing the rampant rage of the ghost a few meters away, he was feeling confident to do certain things like putting his wand down and uncovering his hands from the Cloak to have a better grip on the bones and therefore a better chance of succeeding. 

The cold and harsh touch of the bones felt wrong. And hauntingly familiar. The way Malfoy’s backbones brushed against Harry earlier didn’t stray far from the way these were doing so. It felt like Malfoy’s bones were to rip through his skin at any moment. 

He found his way out of his head again and focused back on what he was doing. He held carefully the lower part of the legs and turned the frame towards him so that he could pull the rest downwards. If he could get the torso to lay down, it would make the process much easier. He gently and slowly pulled the body down and put one hand on the spine. The ghost’s random pauses terrified Harry, who thought he had been caught each time, despite having done nothing to raise suspicions.

His palm started trembling as it was time to lay down the torso. With his other hand for support, he got it done seamlessly. As he looked at it from above, it felt unjust that she had died that way; alone and unwillingly by her own doing. But it didn’t rationalize anything she did before or after her death. Harry couldn’t understand the concept of plotting revenge. Hating someone so much to the point where it consumes you whole. And in the end, it proves nothing and it leaves you emptier than you were, to begin with.   
***

He kept forgetting that Malfoy was sitting through an emotional, maybe physical, traumatization and wasted time by thinking. He shoved his hand under the ribcage and grabbed her wand.  _ ‘Dusty’  _ he thought and wiped it on the Cloak. 

Now he had to return to the question he had previously asked but had gotten no answer to. 

‘Where do I start?’ he asked Malfoy rather loudly, but he didn’t answer. ‘The cat’s out of the bag now, Malfoy, she knows she can’t hear you, so you might as well tell me and let us out of here.’ No answer still. ‘Malfoy!’ He yelled.

‘I don’t know!’ Draco blubbered.

‘How can you not know?’ Harry screamed back.

‘I can’t remember everything, Potter.’ At this point, Chiara made it clear that she didn’t like being left out by throwing an entire shelf’s worth of books onto the already injured boy, who covered his head with his arm and yelled in pain. ‘Just find the book and look it up yourself,’ He returned to the conversation almost immediately most likely because of fear that he wouldn’t be allowed to remain conscious for long. ‘Restricted Section. Unnoticeable Traps.’ Was everything he managed to say before having another wave of books thrown at him. 

‘What are you plotting you vile creatures?’ she had screamed so much that her voice was now hoarse.

Harry felt guilt tingling every nerve of his body. But now he had to run, find the book and unbind the spell. And that’s exactly what he did. He ran all the way to the Restricted Section and found two editions of the book. One was old and filthy, dating back to 1892 and the other was relatively newer and in a much better condition, published in 1984. It was obvious that Chiara had read the older version since the newer hadn’t been published whilst she was alive. But maybe the newer had a way of undoing the spell. 

He went through the pages of the older edition fast and took him a few tries to spot what he needed. The only new information it provided was the fact that one had to start from the wall facing north and end at the wall facing west moving clockwise which conveniently answered his question. He turned the pages of the newer book in a rush of excitement but was grounded quickly when he realised there were no mentions of the ‘Room Within a Room’ creations probably because it was deemed too risky for the executioner. He had to make ends meet with what was provided from the old book. 

He was smart enough to put the books back in their place; he didn’t want her finding out what they were doing by accident.

By a lucky coincidence, he was already standing in front of the west wall. By an unlucky coincidence, the library provided zero ladders that would help him to climb on. He had to reach every corner of the room and to do that he would have to climb on the shelves one by one. It would be reckless and dangerous to use a levitating spell on himself, even though it would be much less of a trouble. 

He put his own wand in his pocket, next to Malfoy’s and pointed with Chiara’s wand at the bottom right corner of the wall and chanted ‘ _I_ _ nclausa _ ’. It released a small, lightning-like spark that fell right on the corner as if it was magnetised. As much as he’d like to, he couldn’t do the bottom corners first and then do the upper altogether. He had to go in a down-up pattern. He looked up to the distance he would have to climb and felt disarmed instantly. His stomach turned and his knees unbuckled.    
  
As soon as he grabbed onto the first shelf he realized that the Cloak would start becoming more of an obstacle rather than an aid. But for no reason would he take it off. He shoved his feet between books and grasped as tightly as he could with his hands. If he looked down his glasses would fall to the ground and apart from driving the attention towards him, he would be unable to see for the rest of the process.

His nervousness as he was reaching towards the final few shelves made his palm sweaty, an undesirable trait to have at that moment more than any other. 

He pointed the wand as close to the top right corner as he could and whispered the charm, once again releasing the white spark. Going down suddenly appeared deadlier than going up. 

Harry bent his knee slightly and tried to find the spot he was previously stepping on. It took him a few agonizing tries but he did it. And when he was close enough to the ground where it wasn’t life-threatening, he jumped down. Thankfully Chiara restlessly screamed her lungs out at Malfoy and didn’t hear him.

He ran to the bottom left corner and repeated the process to the top. He was doing pretty well and got the hang of it so fast that he was done with the west and south wall relatively quickly. But in order to reach the east wall unnoticed Malfoy would need to divert her attention elsewhere. 

‘I’m heading to the east wall, I’m almost done. keep her attention anywhere but the east and south.’ 

Malfoy dropped to the ground and started dragging himself towards the south end, which was right behind him, and Chiara followed. But as Harry started climbing up the shelves, what the ghost said caught his attention.

‘It’s fine, it’s fine.’ She said through panting, ‘Until I can find Potter, I will play with you, Malfoy junior.’ She mocked, ‘My favourite thing about this room is how it can manifest everything I want it to into reality. But of course, you knew that. So, I will move on to task number three. Your worst fear coming to life.’ She paused, ‘Now for Mr Potter, a little legilimency was enough for me to see everything I needed to know. But for you, who evidently have mastered the art of occlumency, I thought it would be tougher to figure it out. Until you served it to me on a silver platter. Honestly, did you have to write so many letters in this room?’

A faint and desperate  _ ‘No’ _ came from Malfoy. 

‘I really hope you didn’t send those letters to anyone. They were quite pathetic. But now onto the fun.’ She said and every candle in the library went out at the same time. 

Harry, who was then coming down from the shelves, got completely disoriented by the abrupt darkness. His foot slipped and his hands couldn’t keep him up. He plunged to the floor and didn’t even feel the pain of the fall because everything blacked out, suddenly and violently.

When his eyes opened again the loud ringing in his ears and the throbbing headache were the first symptoms to occur. He managed to open his eyes after giving it some effort and there was a source of light coming from a little further. He must have fallen on his back because his glasses were still on his nose still intact, yet his vision was blurry. 

As the ringing started fading, and he started grasping a sense of his environment, he wasn’t delighted by what he heard. Malfoy wasn’t just whimpering now. He was full-on crying. And obviously, it sounded like  _ she _ was having the time of her life.

Harry grabbed on the furniture next to him and struggled but finally stood up. His dizziness made walking very hard to execute. He insisted though. Since he had fallen, the Muffliato must have broken, and he had to recast it if he wanted them to move forward. He held onto the shelves as he walked towards them to keep a straight route. His vision was getting better, but seeing the floor moving around wasn’t a beneficial factor.

Despite his hindrances, what he saw when he reached the other two was undeniable. Malfoy was on his knees on the ground bawling his eyes at her, while in front of him sat on a couple of chairs the most stuck up pair of parents he had ever seen, in the wizarding world at least.  _ Lucius and Narcissa _ . In the middle, amongst them, laid a very sharp, silver knife.

Harry tried to make sense of this but he couldn’t. He reached in his back pocket and pulled out his wand. He struggled to point it towards Draco whose form was replicated a couple of times through Harry’s eyes, but he managed. He reinstated the Muffliato spell.

‘Looks like your friend came back, Draco.’ The ghost was the first to notice.

‘What?’ Malfoy asked through his sobbing and looked at her.

‘She can’t hear you.’ Mumbled Harry and rubbed his head.

‘Potter?’ 

‘I fell down and blacked out.’

‘And why are you here pestering me and not there finishing the job?’ Malfoy almost screamed.

‘I need some time. I can barely walk...or see.’ He muttered. ‘What is happening here?’

‘While you were taking a nap, I was being talked into murdering my own fucking parents, that’s what’s going on.’ 

‘What?’ Harry asked ‘But their illusions right?’ Harry’s vision started getting better by the second and the people in the chairs acquired more and more features.

‘ _ Yes _ . But that doesn’t make it any easier.’

‘When you two are done talking, I’d like to inform you that I changed my mind. You now have about two minutes to do this, unless Potter would like to reveal himself, or of course, if you want to die. That’s still an option  _ and _ a repercussion if you don’t complete the task.’ She joined in the conversation with a smirk.

Harry stood still as he started to realise what was going on. There was nothing he could say that would make Draco feel better about what he had to do. Illusions or not.

‘Please tell me you’ll make it in time. I don’t want to do this.’ Malfoy pleaded. Harry felt a terrible weight on him. He had to tell him now that there was no way he could finish the spell in so little time.

‘I can’t.’ He half-heartedly replied. 

‘I don’t want to do this, Potter.’ Malfoy was crying vigorously. Harry knew he had to change tactics if they wanted to both get out of there alive.

‘Stop being a baby, Malfoy. _It’s not real_.  If you keep acting stupid, I swear I’ll crack your skull open to check if there’s a brain in it because I seriously doubt that at the moment. Do you prefer killing a fantasy or actual,  _ physical _ death? Because no matter what  _ you _ do, I am getting out of here.  _ With _ or without you.’ 

Harry was out of breath when he finished talking. This came out rougher than he wanted. But if that’s what it took to keep them both alive, he was fine with it.    
  
‘Now I’m going back to finish the spell. You’re on your own.’ He continued and did exactly as he said. He returned to the east wall and picked up where he’d left off before. Bottom left corner.    
  
Just the thought of what she was putting Malfoy go through was making him sick. A nightmare coming to life. And the way they imitated reality was terrifying. For a second the thought that she had somehow brought them there crossed Harry’s mind. 

He hesitantly started climbing the bookcase, while telling himself that he only had to do that two more times, when he heard the clanking noise of metal being dragged across the floor. Malfoy was doing it? He had somehow actually convinced him to do it? 

He kept climbing up until he had reached the point where he could point at the corner with precision, cast the spell and started going back down again. Both his legs and arms were shaking, probably because they had gotten weaker or because of his nerves. Both plausible scenarios. The problem was that this factor increased his chances of falling down again. But he had no other options. He could only hope for the best. 

As he jumped off the shelves, he feared that he had made too much noise, but the ghost seemed unfazed by Harry and a lot more interested in Malfoy, whose time was running out. The more Malfoy loudly whimpered the more Harry wanted to help, but there was nothing he could do, apart from making sure that they both got out of here.

‘Please,’ the boy muttered under his cries. 

Harry shut his eyes tightly and let a loud breath out through his nose. He ran to the other corner and repeated that tedious and simultaneously hazardous process. This time, once he climbed to almost the top of the bookcase, he twisted his body and looked behind him. Somehow he managed to catch a glimpse of the horrendous scene. He saw Malfoy limping over his  _ “father’s” _ body, holding tightly on the man’s coat, covering his face, and with the other hand, he held the dagger that was previously shiny silver, now dripping crimson blood.

‘Forty seconds.’ She coldly reminded him.

Harry realised he was wasting time by looking at what was happening, but he simply could not take his eyes off. Thankfully, the worsening of his trembling forced him to focus back on his main task instead. He only had to do it once more.

The uncertainty of the outcome almost made him not do it. If he did that and it didn’t work out, they would probably die in there. He climbed back down and ran to the final part.

_ ‘Maybe I can make it before he has to kill Narcissa’ _ Harry thought but the irony rubbed its win to his face when the little  _ ‘ding’ _ sounded in the library. Malfoy actually did it.    
  
He felt his stomach sink as the muffled groans of hurtful crying reached his ears. He could have prevented this if he had moved faster. Possibly. Nevertheless, Harry had made peace with that. It was either the fake projection of two people or an actual, living person. There was a high chance that Malfoy would end up very mentally wounded, but it was something he could live with. Perhaps, it would help him soften up a little towards people. Now that he felt emotions for once.

Finally, he climbed the last few shelves and pointed his wand at the corner. He swallowed hard and looked around him. It was either this or nothing.  _ “Inclausa” _ . 

Nothing happened. He didn’t allow himself to process this; he just climbed down feeling completely numb. Harry almost didn’t want to tell Malfoy that he was done mere seconds after he stabbed his  _ “mother” _ . It would make him look terrible. So he did it anyway. 

***   
He ran to Malfoy to give him the bad news and stumbled on the gruesome scene. Malfoy’s white button-down had stains of blood on it as if he had wiped his hands on it; Lucius and Narcissa had their eyes wide open, and as spiritless as before, with a big, blood-pouring wound on the top left of their chests each, and Malfoy was now grabbing onto his mother’s dress with his face buried on the fabric, like a little kid, silently crying and sitting on the floor.   
***

Harry doubted that this was the right moment to tell him the bad news, but thankfully he didn’t have to. From the far back of the library crashing sounds started to echo. He ran to the main corridor to see the first bookcase he had climbed on falling down, turning to ashes. 

An overwhelming glee filled his body and he ran back to Malfoy, now ready to give him the news as the ghost who was witnessing the event as well, was shrieking terribly.

‘I think I did it, Malfoy!’ He yelled and he could feel tears of joy forming.

Draco lifted his head slightly and seemed that only after Harry pointed it out to him, he noticed the room crumbling down. 

‘What?’ He asked, with tears still streaming down his face. ‘What is going on?’

‘The room is breaking down!’

‘It is?’ 

‘Yes!’ Harry laughed.

‘Are we sure that this was supposed to happen?’   
‘There is only one way to find out.’

Draco looked down and held the pale lifeless hand of his  _ “mother”  _ and stayed there. The sound of the walls breaking down was roaring and almost covered all the yelling coming from Chiara, who saw the place she gave her life for, tear down. Her threats didn’t mean anything to them anymore. 

The fourth wall broke down and turned into dust and everyone waited in silence. Even Chiara. Then the thunderous noise of the destruction started again. Only this time it didn’t affect the walls. But the bookcases. They started falling like a domino one after the other and very quickly approaching them. Harry ripped the Cloak off him while running towards Malfoy, who tried to grab onto the chairs to lift himself up. The chairs started breaking down as well. Now the only thing Malfoy could do was stretch his hand and hope that Potter would catch him on time. Harry grabbed him sloppily and forcefully pulled Malfoy’s arm around his neck. Despite his limp, he tried to be as fast as he possibly could. It was obvious that the pain was excruciating, but he didn’t want to be crushed under a bookcase for the second time in a night. 

Even though he looked so small now that he was but flesh and bones, Harry found it challenging to carry him across, but they made it. The bookcase fell behind them and Malfoy followed right after. He slipped from Harry’s grip and fell on the floor unconscious. This was something to be expected, however, Harry found it hard to keep his calm in the circumstances he was in; the room was crumbling and turning to dust, a ghost was shrieking horridly saying words to them he couldn’t make out, and Malfoy was unconscious on his feet. 

He reached for his wand but when his hand reached his back pocket, none of the two wands were there. He had to make things work with her wand for the moment. His arm was shaking, though he was sure that it was because of exhaustion and not out of fear.

Right before the last bookcase fell to the ground, unsure of what to expect, he kneeled to the ground next to the senseless Slytherin and cast the Protego charm. From the centre of the room, a ball of light formed but it didn’t keep its form for long; a split second later, it burst, covering the room with a bright white light, similar to what had happened earlier, only this time, from the centre out and not the other way around. The wand broke in Harry’s hand, the ghost finally shut up and the Gryffindor covered his eyes to avoid turning blind until the silence seemed suspicious.

Chiara stood still and Harry hesitantly started peeking out of his hand. The library looked the same as before the crumbling. She floated towards the library’s entrance and reached with her semi-translucent fingers to touch the wall. When it went through, a sigh of relief escaped Harry who fell on his back on the floor, and Chiara stopped to process what had happened.

‘You broke it?’ She asked. Harry sat up and looked at her, lightly panting and dusting the crumbles of the broken wand off his hand. 

‘You’re not a prisoner of your own creation anymore, Perkins.’ He murmured.

‘I’m not?’ She insisted on the obvious questions. Harry nodded. She pushed her hand further out. Then she stuck her head very slowly out. She turned to Harry but then very quickly flew outside wholly. Not even a ‘Thanks’ or a ‘Goodbye’. But Harry didn’t care; he had to get some things in order. 

First things first, hide the Invisibility Cloak again, then find their wands. He repositioned Malfoy in a better position and carefully wrapped his fingers around his cold wrist to check for his pulse. After making sure that he was alive, he laid the boy’s hand softly back down to the floor and hastily folded the Invisibility Cloak. He placed it back in his pocket and ran to the side where he had fallen to hopefully collect the wands. He found his own, but not Malfoy’s. It must have rolled off somewhere, but he didn’t waste any time looking for it. 

He had to take Malfoy to the hospital and then talk to Dumbledore. Afterwards, he could come back and look for it. He couldn’t carry Malfoy there on his own, so he’d have to leave him there until he grabbed Madam Pomfrey. As he hovered over him, it only felt right to give him something to cover himself with. He was -after all- laying on the freezing floor. Leaving him with the Invisibility Cloak would be beyond irresponsible. The only thing that could cross his mind was the one he eventually did. He took his Gryffindor sweater off and put it on Malfoy, who if he woke up at that moment, would probably beat the life out of Harry for committing such treason.

As he was putting the sweater over him, the infamous letter fell out of his pocket. He wasn’t proud of what followed after that. He wanted to read it, but it could wait. So instead of reading it and putting it back, he took it with him. 

He ran out of the library and into the Hospital Wing in which he just barged in without caring. Madam Pomfrey rushed out of her room in her nightgown and hair curlers.

‘Young man, what is this all about?’ She asked as she wrapped a pink robe around her.

‘I don’t have much time to explain. Malfoy broke his leg and fainted in the library. I need some help to get him here and then I have to find Professor Dumbledore.’ He spoke so fast that the woman could barely keep up with him.

‘The library? What were you-’

‘I wish I could explain, and I will eventually but for now, please hurry!’ He cut her off.

‘I… Uhm… Go to Professor Dumbledore. I’ll take care of the boy.’ She reassured him.

Harry breathed a barely audible  _ ‘Thank you’ _ to her and ran off to Dumbledore’s office.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you had fun reading this omg I'm sorry if this ended up kind of disappointing but I just wanted this part of the story to be over and decided to not get graphic about the violent scenes because it didn't feel right. At least in the next chapters, their feelings will start getting emphasized. Or maybe not haha we'll see. Anyway, thank you so much for reading I appreciate and love you all so much!
> 
> P.S. I know I said that I would delete the previous chapter in 24h but I wanted to reply to a comment and only got to do that today lol


	7. This Will Be Deleted in 24 Hours!

Hey loves! I'm sorry I haven't updated in a while I haven't forgotten. I need your opinion about posting the next chapter. I want the Library part of the story to end asap, but if incorporate that in one chapter it will be much bigger than the chapters I usually post. So the question I'm asking is as follows:

_**Do you want me to post the chapter to its full extent and finish the library phase in that chapter, or** _

_**Should I post it in two parts (which means of course that the library part of the story will take up about four chapters of it) so that it's easier for you to read it?** _

The story will not change according to the answer, the plot will remain exactly the same. It's just about making it less of a massive 9k (give or take 2k) chapter. I want this to be enjoyable for you. I will leave this up for 24 hours and if no one has answered until then, I will make my decision on my own, unfortunately. But don't worry the new chapter is coming very soon! Love you all!

**Author's Note:**

> If you actually made it to the end, I love you because I hate this chapter lmao  
> Feel free to comment or inbox me anything. Feedback is always appreciated!


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